Develop a 3-5 page business case for the initiative you proposed in Assessment 1. Examine feasibility and cost-benefit considerations over a 5-year period, analyze ways to mitigate risks, and complete a cost-benefit analysis.

Business Case for Adoption of Telemedicine at Tenet Healthcare Organization

Potential Economic Opportunities and Risks

The use of telemedicine has expanded since the Covid-19 pandemic, as insurers, policymakers, and healthcare facilities continue to look for affordable ways to deliver healthcare to patients. The growing demand for telemedicine has resulted in various changes to telehealth coverage, policy, and implementation to enhance the accessibility of telemedicine, particularly during emergencies (Khemapech, 2019). Tenet Healthcare Organization could benefit from this by using telemedicine to promote collaboration between healthcare providers in healthcare facilities across the United States. Another opportunity that Tenet Healthcare Organization could benefit from is the growth in digital infrastructure in the healthcare setting. The Global Digital Health Index can help Tenet Healthcare Organization monitor, track and assess the enabling digital environment for the implementation of telemedicine in different healthcare facilities. The assessment can help Tenet Healthcare improve telemedicine adoption, thus improving patient quality of care.

One of the main risks that pose a threat to Tenet Healthcare organization’s financial security is the possibility of misdiagnosis. According to Botrugno (2022), telemedicine increases the chances of misdiagnosis because the healthcare providers in different locations rely on the information provided by the healthcare provider in contact with a patient. Therefore, if the healthcare provider shares wrong or misleading information, the patient may be misdiagnosed. Misdiagnosis will increase the financial uncertainty and vulnerability of Tenet Healthcare Organization and could limit profitability due to a bad reputation. Another risk involves issues in insurance coverage. According to Baker-Whitcomb & Harvey (2018), providing care remotely raises payment and insurance coverage issues. Patients may be reluctant to use telemedicine because it is not covered in their health insurance, and healthcare providers may be reluctant to use it because of the uncertainty on how it will be incorporated into their payment terms. The benefits from the potential economic opportunities of adopting telemedicine outweigh the potential risks because the risks can be mitigated to enhance the success of telemedicine. Therefore, Tenet Healthcare Organization needs to structure a risk management strategy with risk mitigation techniques for every risk, including unexpected risks.

Ethical and Culturally Sensitive Solutions to Telemedicine Risks

One of the measures that could be taken to modify the telemedicine initiative to mitigate the risk of insurance coverage issues is collaborating with healthcare insurance companies to cover telemedicine in their medical cover packages. The organization could inform healthcare insurance companies about the benefits of telemedicine in healthcare to convince them that it is necessary to guarantee quality healthcare services. Other healthcare organizations have dealt with this risk by signing a form where a patient agrees to meet telemedicine costs if their healthcare insurance providers do not cover the costs. Therefore, partnering with insurance companies would give Tenet Healthcare Organization a competitive advantage because the patients would not have to meet telemedicine costs independently. Tenet Organization could also train healthcare providers on how to access the information provided by other healthcare providers to ensure that it is accurate before diagnosing a patient remotely. Healthcare providers should also be held accountable for misdiagnosis. According to Manheimer (2015), holding healthcare providers accountable for medical errors makes them more careful when treating patients to avoid the consequences. Therefore, Tenet Healthcare Organization could clarify the disciplinary actions for healthcare providers who make medical errors.

Although the solutions above may disadvantage patients with no healthcare insurance, they apply to the majority of the population in the United States seeking medical care from different Tenet Healthcare Organization facilities across the country. However, the risks need to be addressed by all applicable means possible because the adoption of telemedicine plays a vital role in community health care delivery outcomes. For instance, telemedicine is a great opportunity for economic growth because it improves the quality of health care, thus increasing the productivity of human capital to the extent of positively contributing to economic growth. It also reduces government costs on healthcare, particularly costs incurred in paying healthcare providers in government hospitals, thus creating more money for economic development.

Economic Costs and Benef