The cost of health care is on the lips of everyone, from the thousands of HM17 attendees to congressional leaders to President Donald Trump. Yet, one long-promoted answer – telemedicine practiced by telehospitalists – is not as widely adopted as its proponents say it should be. After Wednesday’s session, “Foundations of a Hospital Medicine Telemedicine Program,” which begins at 4:15 p.m., at least a few more physicians will see it as an option.
“The timing is there,” said copresenter Talbot “Mac” McCormick, MD, president and chief executive officer of Eagle Telemedicine of Atlanta. “Telemedicine has come of age.”
Dr. Talbot “Mac” McCormick
Copresenter Shannon Carpenter, BS, MBA, vice president at Charlotte, N.C.–based Carolinas Healthcare System, said telemedicine is a “relevancy issue.”
“We are hearing so much about a need for an alternative care model, [and] the virtual-care model is incredibly relevant in today’s environment,” Ms. Carpenter said. Adding to telemedicine’s basic advantage is its ability to help alleviate staffing issues.
Ms. Shannon Carpenter
Institutions that can’t afford additional full-time equivalents can take advantage of hospitalists based elsewhere who consult via video screens or other technological connections.
“Telemedicine and telehospitalists can support and fill out gaps [and] can expand capability and capacity,” Dr. McCormick added. “Then, the other part is economy of scale. You can share a telehospitalist amongst a couple of small hospitals … an advantage over each one trying to do it themselves.”
For example, individual institutions might not be able to keep a hospitalist busy 12 hours a night, but a nocturnist is still a requirement.
“When they need somebody, they sure need them,” Dr. McCormick said. “So, you get an economy of scale that several small hospitals effectively can share one physician because the space continuum – not necessarily the time continuum – but the space continuum and the geographic continuum is different engaging telemedicine versus people physically on the ground.”
Ms. Carpenter said that one of the obstacles to telemedicine is simply getting physicians to change habits.
“The biggest hurdles that we experienced were with buy-in for the care-delivery model,” she said. “Surprisingly, it’s not from the patients’ perspectives. It’s from either from the physicians who should be providing the service and/or from the staff in the hospital who aren’t used to the technology or the method of care delivery. To avoid this, it’s just like anything else: over-communication, education, and an ability to explain why and how care will be delivered.”
In addition to the difficulty of changing the culture, integration failures are another potential pitfall, according to Dr. McCormick.
“I think that communication gets to part of that,” he said. “I think [telemedicine should be viewed] … not [as] a segmented silo of a hospitalist team – to be functional and to work well, it has to be integrated with the team so that it’s just a seamless part of the care team of the doctors, the nurses, the nurse practitioners.”
Both presenters agree that, as value-based payments and alternative payment models proliferate in the coming years, telemedicine will only grow as hospitals and hospitalist group leaders look for cost efficiencies. It will also be broader than just nocturnist services.
Ms. Carpenter said future uses could include expansion to ambulatory clinics for transitioning patients from acute care back to their medical home environment or to telehospitalists supporting paramedics on home visits.
“The use of tools and technology like this can allow care to bridge across these multiple geographic locations of care and do it in a way that provides continuity, economy of scale, consistent and high quality care,” Dr. McCormick said.
Foundations of a Hospital Medicine Telemedicine Program
Wednesday, 4:15–5:20 p.m.
Available via HM17 On Demand