Factors Influencing Readiness Telemedicine Implementation During COVID-19: A Systematic Review

Background: The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has made a rapid and changing health care services. Moreover, currently with the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine can be used for providing safe care, without the physical presence of the patient or caregivers at healthcare or hospitals. The implementation of telemedicine may help improve healthcare service during COVID-19 pandemic. Several studies have identified both barriers and facilitating factors that influence the readiness of telemedicine implementation at healthcare facility. The purpose of this study is to explore and identify the factors that influencing the readiness of telemedicine implementation.Methods: This article is a systematic review which is a method that uses review, analysis, structured evaluation, classification, and categorization based on the evidence that has been previously produced. This review uses the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis method, or commonly known as PRISMA. This review was conducted by searching published articles from 2020 to 2021, from Scopus, Science Direct, Springer Link and ProQuest database.Results: Of the 99 studies identified, 5 were included in this study. Reported factors that influenced the readiness of implementation telemedicine were divided into five categories: technology, policy, people, resources, and organization. Concerns about the telemedicine system’s functionality were methods of using good data, infrastructure planning, human resources, effective management, and good technical implementation.Conclusions: By using a narrative synthesis, we identified the success factors of readiness telemedicine implementation are infrastructure planning, human resources, effective management, and good technical implementation