Access TeleCare’s hospitalist telemedicine programs are fully integrated into our partner hospitals, adding capacity and providing expert care management to transform care for hospitals and patients. The programs yield positive impacts for patient care, local physician and clinician satisfaction, and partner hospitals’ financial and quality performance.
A deep level of integration combined with 24/7 availability means:
- Patients spend less time waiting in emergency departments because they can be admitted more efficiently.
- Local clinicians have a sustainable workload and strong sense of professional satisfaction.
- Hospitals reduce the number of outbound transfers and care for more patients with complex conditions.
Reducing Local Physician Burnout & Enhancing Professional Satisfaction
Sullivan County Community Hospital, a rural hospital in Indiana, partnered with Access TeleCare’s hospitalists to support its local family medicine physicians who were caring for patients at both the hospital and in surrounding outpatient clinics. They were stretched thin, covering multiple locations. With Access TeleCare teleHospitalists covering inpatient care, the family medicine physicians were freed up to run their outpatient practices and restore a more manageable workload.
In addition, the hospital-based clinicians experienced almost immediate reward from the collegial, professional collaboration among their teams and the virtual hospitalists. Despite different physical locations, the various providers quickly formed a cohesive unit, working as one.
Improving Financial and Clinical Performance
Another hospital deploying teleHospitalists saw significant bottom-line impacts:
- Increased Case Mix Index: Since the start of the program, the hospital’s CMI has increased 21 percent, from 1.16 to 1.40.
- Increased Revenue: Since the start of the program, hospital revenue has increased more than 60 percent as the hospital reduced outbound transfers and retained more complex patients.
- Superior Quality Outcomes: In 2023, the hospital performed at the 95th percentile in Sepsis bundle quality scoring. The hospitalists themselves consistently perform at above 80 percent in their portion of the quality measure.
Reducing ED Wait Times & Boarding
With ED wait times increasing and ED boarding, particularly for patients needing behavioral health interventions, rising to crisis levels, having as efficient hospital operations as possible is essential. 24/7 hospitalist availability is one piece.
Access TeleCare’s hospitalists can quickly identify which patients need a higher level of care and transfer and which can receive care locally, increasing ED throughput and reducing unnecessary transfers. The benefits for hospitals are significant, as reducing ED wait times by even one hour yields additional daily revenue of $9,693 to $13,298 by retaining patients who would have left the hospital before they were seen and patients who would have been unnecessarily transferred.
When teleHospitalists are combined with additional telemedicine service lines, such as Behavioral Health, the efficiencies and reduction in ED wait times can be even greater. With a telePsychiatrist available for consultation in the ED and a teleHospitalist available to admit, patients benefit from the different telemedicine specialists working in tandem to get them the care they need sooner.
Contact us to learn more about our hospitalist telemedicine programs and all the ways Access TeleCare can benefit your hospital and your patients.
