Evaluating the Effects on Hospital Encounters After Implementing After-Hours Telemedicine Visits in a Senior Living Facility

Hospitalizations from senior living facilities result in complications, morbidity, and Medicare expenditures of over 1 billion dollars annually. Lack of after-hours, on-site physician availability in these facilities may contribute to avoidable emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations. Often, when unable to evaluate a patient visually, the on-call provider may opt to send the patient to the ED for further evaluation. This, in turn, puts patients in an unfamiliar, noisy environment, increasing rates of delirium and causing a significant stress burden on the patient, not to mention costs incurred during the encounter.
Source: Journal of the American Medical Directors Association - Category: Health Management Authors: Source Type: research