4 Key Benefits of Telemedicine for Health Networks

Complex ID cases often require specialized care and subspecialty expertise. With ID telemedicine, your hospitalists gain access to a team of experts with subspecialist expertise, allowing your team to care for complicated cases locally, eliminating the need for transfers.

In a retrospective Open Forum Infectious Diseases analysis of three community hospitals  (in largely rural areas/counties in northwestern Pennsylvania) in the UPMC system that converted from an in-person infectious disease care model to one based solely on ID telemedicine services provided by Infectious Disease Connect’s clinicians, the tele-ID group showed a trend toward shorter length of stay (LOS), less frequent ID-related readmissions at 30 days and transfers to tertiary centers, more frequent discharges to home, and low mortality within 30 days of discharge.¹

With the ongoing ID physician shortage, it is becoming more difficult to recruit ID physicians, especially to rural areas. Often, health systems are faced with employing a small number – or even a single ID physician – who travels between sites. Time spent on travel between sites can impact LOS and timely care.

With a dedicated ID telemedicine service, time previously spent commuting by onsite physicians can be spent evaluating and managing patients and providing timely and comprehensive care.

A standalone ID telemedicine service is a great model to support – not replace – your onsite ID physicians. Often times, due to limited resources and needs for coverage of peripheral hospitals within a system, ID physicians find themselves stretched thin having to handle complex patients in larger facilities while also assisting smaller institutions with peer-to-peer support. This has led to many ID physicians feeling burnt out, and unsatisfied due to inability to attend to all patient care needs.

Your onsite physicians can feel better supported with the availability of a reliable Tele-ID service that can alleviate heavy workloads, provide backup coverage for PTO, evenings, weekends, or leaves of absence, leading to happier onsite ID physicians and better employee retention.

With ID telemedicine, your dedicated team of telemedicine ID physicians is available to support your onsite ID physicians and meet patient care demands.

When a health network takes a system-wide approach to ID telemedicine, the entire system benefits from shared monthly consult pools and coverage, meaning each facility will be able to provide supplementary ID care when and where they need it.