How do I Justify Telemedicine in my organization

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   Telemedicine and Telehealth uses are usually justified in terms of clinical benefits to patients, convenience to patients and financial benefits to the organization.  Patients seem to be almost uniformly pleased with the convenience of telemedicine and there is growing evidence of its clinical benefit.  However the bottom line for most hospitals focuses on the questions of cost and revenues.  The basic questions are:  Will the costs of providing telemedicine at least equal the revenue that can be generated and is this the best use of the scarce resources we have?

We believe and have collected some evidence that for rural hospitals the generated revenues exceed the costs due to three reasons:  1)  The patients remain in the community and can be provided future services,  2) rural hospitals can receive a small facility fee to help cover some costs and 3) many types of telehealth services require local ancillary services such as lab work that generates additional revenue for the organization.

To get this discussion started let me ask what you think?  Is this a powerful argument for telemedicine in your organization?  Why or why not?

I look forward to your comments and any questions that you might have.

Stuart

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Stuart Speedie Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Moderator Group Joined: 16 July 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1	Quote Reply Topic: How do I Justify Telemedicine in my organization Posted: 11 August 2008 at 6:35am
	Telemedicine and Telehealth uses are usually justified in terms of clinical benefits to patients, convenience to patients and financial benefits to the organization. Patients seem to be almost uniformly pleased with the convenience of telemedicine and there is growing evidence of its clinical benefit. However the bottom line for most hospitals focuses on the questions of cost and revenues. The basic questions are: Will the costs of providing telemedicine at least equal the revenue that can be generated and is this the best use of the scarce resources we have? We believe and have collected some evidence that for rural hospitals the generated revenues exceed the costs due to three reasons: 1) The patients remain in the community and can be provided future services, 2) rural hospitals can receive a small facility fee to help cover some costs and 3) many types of telehealth services require local ancillary services such as lab work that generates additional revenue for the organization. To get this discussion started let me ask what you think? Is this a powerful argument for telemedicine in your organization? Why or why not? I look forward to your comments and any questions that you might have. Stuart
	Stuart Speedie, PhD