“Interhospital transfer is a topic that a lot of hospitals are dealing with right now,” he said. “It’s always a group of patients that we worry about.”
“One of the strongest things about this poster was the strong methodology,” said another judge, Vineet Gupta, MD, FHM, assistant clinical professor at the University of California, San Diego. “The statistical analysis was really good, very strong, very robust.”
The innovations award–winning study, presented by Ethan Kuperman, MD, MSc, FHM, clinical assistant professor at the University of Iowa, involved an attempt to reduce transfers from the emergency departments of critical-access hospitals in rural Iowa to urban medical centers by providing care with “virtual hospitalists” using tablets.
“Our goal was to treat more patients locally, to keep those patients happy in their communities. That’s what patients get out of it,” Dr. Kuperman told judges. “The hospitals get to keep their family practice doctors doing primary care, stay open, and get more patients. Win, win, win.”
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