Counted rather than asserted, MN690's Unit 8 analysis estimates how many of one clinic's 5,200 patients a portal-only video service would miss, overlaps included. Searches like "mn 690 unit 8 assignment example", "mn690 unit 8 sample" and "mn690 unit 8 example" land here.
Who a Portal-Only Virtual Service Leaves Out: An Access and Equity Analysis for a Rural Clinic of 5,200 Adults
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
MN690: Telehealth Application
Unit 8 Assignment
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The clinic, panel and counts are composites written as a model document. Federal programs and published studies cited are real.
The Design Choice
The clinic's new virtual service will let patients book video visits only through the patient portal, and visits will default to video. The question for this analysis is how many of the clinic's 5,200 adult patients that design leaves out, and which patients. The design was chosen for sound reasons: the portal already handles appointment reminders, and routing all bookings through it reduces phone volume at a front desk that is often short-staffed. The analysis does not argue against the portal. It asks what the portal-only rule costs in access, so that the clinic can decide whether the savings are worth it and what to add alongside the portal.
Barrier Table
Each row gives the barrier, the data source, the estimated count and share of the panel, and the consequence for a video-first service.
Broadband. Source: the FCC National Broadband Map, matched to patients' home addresses (Federal Communications Commission, n.d.). Estimate: about 17 percent of households, roughly 880 adults, lack service at the federal benchmark of 100 megabits per second download and 20 upload. Consequence: video may freeze or fail. Weakness: map data can overstate coverage at individual addresses.
Portal activation. Source: the clinic's portal records. Estimate: 58 percent of adults have activated accounts, so about 2,180 have not. Consequence: they cannot schedule a virtual visit at all under the current design. Weakness: activation says nothing about whether a patient can manage a video call.
Preferred language. Source: registration records. Estimate: 190 patients prefer Hmong and 120 prefer Spanish, about 6 percent together. Consequence: the portal and scheduling messages are in English only.
Hearing loss. Source: problem lists. Estimate: 312 adults, 6 percent. Consequence: audio quality and the absence of captions limit video visits. Weakness: problem lists undercount hearing loss.
Age. Source: registration records. Estimate: 416 adults over 80, 8 percent. Consequence: older adults are less likely to be ready for video visits; in a national sample, about 38 percent of older adults were judged not ready, with the share rising sharply with age (Lam et al., 2020).
Shared devices. Source: the clinic's 2025 intake survey of 400 patients. Estimate: 22 percent share one smartphone with other household members. Consequence: limited privacy and availability for a scheduled visit.
Overlaps
Barriers stack. Cross-matching the panel shows that about 260 adults aged 70 or older have neither portal activation nor broadband at the benchmark, and about 90 of them also have documented hearing loss. The patients most likely to need care at a distance, older adults with chronic conditions in the county's remote townships, are also the most likely to fail three barriers at once. A video-first, portal-only design would therefore exclude most completely the group it could help most.
What the Numbers Cannot Show
The table counts barriers that the clinic's records or public data can see. Several matter just as much and cannot be counted from those sources. Digital skill is one: a patient may have broadband and an activated portal and still be unable to join a video call without help. Privacy at home is another: a patient living with an abusive partner, or in a crowded household, may have every device and still be unable to speak freely. Trust is a third: some patients, especially those who have had poor experiences with health systems, may prefer to be seen in person and may read a video-first design as a sign that the clinic wants to see them less. Disability beyond hearing, including low vision and cognitive impairment, is recorded unevenly. The clinic can learn about these barriers only by asking patients directly, and the monitoring plan below includes a short question about each at the end of every virtual visit.
Policy Context
The federal Affordable Connectivity Program subsidized home internet for eligible households, but it stopped paying benefits in June 2024 when its funding ran out (Federal Communications Commission, 2024). Some patients who had broadband through the program may have lost it, so broadband estimates based on earlier data may be too optimistic. Rural residents have long been less likely than urban and suburban residents to have home broadband (Vogels, 2021).
Mitigations, Matched to Rows
Portal activation: add scheduling by telephone, so no patient needs a portal account to book. Broadband: offer an audio-only path for visits that do not need a camera, and a telehealth room at two public libraries with reliable internet and a private space. Language: have professional interpreters join video and audio visits, and translate scheduling scripts into Hmong and Spanish. Hearing loss: enable live captions on the platform and offer in-person visits by default for patients with severe hearing loss. Age and shared devices: let patients choose telephone or in-person care without penalty, and allow a family member to set up the call with the patient's permission.
Cost of the Mitigations
Most mitigations cost staff time rather than money. Telephone scheduling uses the clinic's existing front-desk line, with about two additional hours of staff time a day expected in the first months. Translated scripts cost a one-time fee for professional translation and review by community members. Interpreter services are already contracted for in-person visits and extend to virtual visits at the same rate. Live captioning is included in the platform's current license. The library telehealth rooms require an agreement with the library district, a laptop with a camera in each room and a few hours of training for library staff, estimated at about 4,000 dollars for both sites in the first year. Against those costs, the clinic avoids building a service that a third or more of its patients cannot use.
Monitoring
After launch, the clinic will report virtual visit use by age group, language, township and portal status every quarter. If older adults or non-English speakers use virtual care at much lower rates than other patients, the clinic will treat that gap as a sign that barriers remain and adjust the mitigations.
Conclusion
A portal-only, video-first design would leave out a large share of the clinic's patients, and it would exclude older rural patients most completely. The mitigations above cost little and would make the virtual service available to nearly all of the panel, including the older rural patients the original design missed.
References
Federal Communications Commission. (2024). Affordable Connectivity Program wind-down. https://www.fcc.gov/acp
Federal Communications Commission. (n.d.). FCC national broadband map. https://broadbandmap.fcc.gov
Lam, K., Lu, A. D., Shi, Y., & Covinsky, K. E. (2020). Assessing telemedicine unreadiness among older adults in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic. JAMA Internal Medicine, 180(10), 1389-1391. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.2671
Vogels, E. A. (2021). Some digital divides persist between rural, urban and suburban America. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/08/19/some-digital-divides-persist-between-rural-urban-and-suburban-america/
How this MN690 Unit 8 example is structured
Numbers come first because the drawer line asks for a count, and a count can be checked in a way a statement of principle cannot. Each estimate names its source and its weakness: map data overstate coverage at some addresses, problem lists undercount hearing loss, and portal activation says nothing about whether a patient can manage video. The overlap figure carries the central argument. Barriers stack, so the patients most likely to need care at a distance, older adults with chronic conditions in remote townships, are also the most likely to fail three barriers at once. Policy context is dated: the federal Affordable Connectivity Program, which subsidized home internet for eligible households, stopped paying benefits in June 2024 when funding ran out. Mitigations are matched to rows: an audio-only path, interpreter-joined visits, a telehealth room at two public libraries, and scheduling by phone.
Get an MN690 Unit 8 example written to your instructions
Pass along whatever is known about the population your service would reach, even rough figures, and the design choices already made, with the Unit 8 prompt and rubric. The analysis returns with barriers counted from named sources, overlaps shown and mitigations matched to each gap. First custom sample free; allow 24-48h. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
MN690 Unit 8 questions, answered
Where can broadband data for a patient population come from?
The FCC's National Broadband Map reports available service by location and can be matched to patient addresses in aggregate. State broadband offices and census survey data on household internet subscriptions add context. Each source has limits: availability is not adoption, and map data can overstate coverage. The analysis should name the source, the date accessed and those limits.
Is audio-only care an equity measure or a lower standard?
It can be either, depending on use. For patients without broadband or comfort with video, audio-only may be the difference between care and none, especially for medication follow-up and some behavioral health visits. It loses all visual information, so it suits some presentations poorly. A strong analysis defines where audio-only serves patients and where it would quietly lower the standard.
Should the analysis include patients who could use video but choose not to?
Yes. Preference is a real barrier: some patients distrust video, lack a private space or simply want an in-person relationship. Counting them requires survey data or visit-choice records rather than assumptions. Including them keeps the analysis honest about uptake, since a service that assumes everyone able to use video will want to may plan for demand that never appears.