By Raymond Hino, president and CEO of Sonoma (California) West Medical Center
Telemedicine systems, including remote presence technology, have evolved over the years from stationary workstations to mobile carts to the latest "robotic" units that self-propel themselves down our hospital corridors without a driver, according to preprogrammed GPS instructions. This technology has been credited with bringing specialists, including critical care intensivists, to the bedside in hospitals where no such practitioners live or work within hundreds of miles.
Through my experience as a hospital CEO, I have seen our hospitals benefit through coverage in a variety of applications, including intensive care unit and hospitalist coverage and specialty consults in both inpatient and outpatient clinic settings. I have seen ICUs that have reopened after the introduction of telemedicine and remote presence physician coverage of the units. In short, telemedicine has proven itself as a revenue producing service for our hospitals. >> Read the full Hospital Impact post