An Empirical Study on Tele-Consultation In Home-Visit Nursing Care Setting Under Korean Long-Term Care Insurance System

Purpose: The National Health Insurance Service implemented a tele-consultation pilot project for in-home care using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). This study aims to investigate nurses’, doctors’, and families’ perceptions on the project.Methods: Using the pilot project database and perception survey data, this study provides a description of the satisfaction, re-participation motivation, and experiences of nurses, doctors, and families.Results: Tele-consultation for home-visit nursing was used to monitor health conditions and problems, such as pain and blood pressure, or health counseling for home-care beneficiaries. The beneficiaries' families showed higher levels of satisfaction than the service providers. Nurses and doctors had relatively positive perceptions about the usefulness of sharing information about beneficiaries, timeliness of providing nursing care, and convenience of communication. Meanwhile, nurses and doctors had negative perceptions of the sufficiency and accuracy of information obtained from tele-consultation, implying the necessity of adopting more advanced ICTs.Conclusion: This study suggests what must be considered when designing a tele-consultation service model in long-term care settings, especially in the home-visit nursing care setting. Innovative approaches using ICTs should be taken to improve home-visit nursing care quality in the era of super-aging and COVID-19.