Rural hospital leaders work tirelessly to find sustainable solutions to help meet their community’s care needs and address the significant financial challenges jeopardizing the future of rural health care.
Access TeleCare’s telemedicine programs do both.
Customizable telemedicine programs provide capacity and timely access to specialty medicine experts when and where they’re needed, eliminating geographic barriers to care and reducing costs associated with hiring locum tenens physicians. The flexibility virtual care offers, combined with Access TeleCare’s commitment to delivering cost-effective, sustainable solutions, give rural hospitals not just a lifeline, but a way forward to continue evolving.
Telemedicine is a Win-Win for Patient Care and Rural Hospital Finances
Access TeleCare’s telemedicine programs broaden access to high quality care for patients, covering a wide range of services that would otherwise be inaccessible to rural communities – all within financially sustainable models of care that work for rural hospitals and their patients.
For Physicians Behavioral Hospital, a 42-bed inpatient behavioral health facility in Louisiana, Access TeleCare delivered the potent combination of excellent patient care and financial sustainability. Since partnering with Access TeleCare, the hospital has more than doubled their daily census and even added a new intensive outpatient program that sees 50 patients a day. More patients receive specialty care from dedicated behavioral health professionals committed to providing an excellent care experience, and the hospital boosted revenue by scaling its operations and expanding its services.
“Since we’ve [partnered] with Access TeleCare, we’ve seen our business grow and we’ve seen our patient complaints go down,” said the hospital’s CEO, Brad Mabry.
Achieving Financial Sustainability Through Telemedicine
The financial advantages of Access TeleCare’s telemedicine programs also have the potential to yield downstream revenue and enhance patient care beyond the walls of the hospital deploying telemedicine.
Without comprehensive local neurology coverage, six Tennessee hospitals were transferring a high number of neurology patients. Both neurology revenue and patient satisfaction were trending in the wrong direction before the hospitals launched a teleNeurohospitalist program with Access TeleCare. Not only did the program reduce transfers by 60 percent and increase neurology revenue by 80 percent, the hospitals’ post-acute rehabilitation facility saw a 148 percent increase in neurology admission revenue. Patients enjoyed greater access to specialty medicine experts, which led to fewer transfers and greater patient satisfaction.
“When integrated with on-site clinical teams to manage the full spectrum of inpatient neurological conditions, our teleNeurohospitalist programs generate a significant return on investment for hospitals while delivering superior patient outcomes,” Dr. Annie Tsui, Access TeleCare’s chief of neurology, said of the program.
Contact us to learn more about telemedicine programs that meet your community’s care needs and deliver positive financial results.
