Telehealth is the use of technology to deliver health services over distance. Telehealth has existed since the introduction of the telegraph, but new technology has expanded the possibilities for its use in medicine. Exciting tools such as tele-radiology, tele-psychiatry and the medical use of video conferencing are only available if a broadband infrastructure is in place.
According to the CMS sponsored web site, MedQIC, Home telehealth is the remote care delivery or monitoring between a healthcare provider and a patient. There are two types of telehealth: phone monitoring (scheduled encounters via the telephone) and telemonitoring (collection and transmission of clinical data through electronic information processing technologies). Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs) assist home health agencies in implementing and utilizing telehealth as a tool to help reduce acute care hospitalization.