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What is Telemedicine?
Telemedicine is the use of electronic information, imaging and communication technologies to provide and support health care services. Telemedicine includes consultative, diagnostic and treatment services between specialty and primary care physicians and their patients.
Medicare and several other third-party payors now provide reimbursement for telemedicine services in order to connect providers and patients, enabling access to advanced equipment and specialists to make better diagnostic, management and treatment decisions for the patient without the need to leave their community. Healthcare providers can share test results, radiologic images and other information about the patient. Using live, high quality video and audio, providers can analyze the tests, and talk directly to the patient and his or her local provider.
Regional Telemedicine Network (RTN) is a non-profit organization formed, “To enable efficient communication and collaboration between healthcare providers and patients, and productive cooperation among various community healthcare assets when geographic distance is a barrier.”
Why telemedicine?
Telemedicine has been growing rapidly for 40 years because it offers key benefits:
Improved Access: Telemedicine is currently being used throughout the U.S. to bring health care services to patients in distant locations, improving access for patients, and allowing physicians and health care facilities to expand their reach. In the case of community-based physicians, telemedicine has the potential to keep more patients in the local community to obtain specialty services through their own practices.
Cost Efficiencies: Telemedicine has been shown to reduce the overall cost of health care and increase efficiency through better management of chronic diseases, shared staffing, reduced travel time, and fewer and/or shorter hospital stays.
Patient Demand: Consumers are becoming familiar with telemedicine. The Internet has become a resource for many patients wanting to know more about their health concerns and overall wellness, and seek immediate, fast information. Telemedicine technologies can have great impact on patient satisfaction because they can spend less time traveling and more time with their families.
When can I use telemedicine?
RTN is available for use in a variety of different clinical environments, with a wide range of specialties. Key usage environments for telemedicine include:
- Physician offices, for patient visits and consultation with specialty providers
- Emergency Departments, for rapid assessment and collaboration between ED providers and specialty physicians
- Other hospital departments, for potential sharing of services and other collaborative opportunities that will benefit from the video and audio interaction
RTN connectivity will be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with technical support available Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., excluding holidays. Any telemedicine visits taking place outside of these technical support hours will be considered “off-hours” and subject to technical support availability.
How do I use telemedicine?
RTN will provide telemedicine equipment and connections through secure networks that meet or exceed the current industry, government and regulatory standards. RTN and its health care providers will ensure that only appropriate individuals have access and participate in the telemedicine sessions.
RTN will link specialty healthcare providers to clinics and smaller, regional hospitals in rural areas. The links will use dedicated high-speed lines or secure Internet connections for telecommunication, videoconferencing and data transfer.
Telemedicine appointments require the provider to perform an exam of the patient who is many miles away. In order to accomplish this task, an individual with a clinical background (e.g., medical assistant, LPN, RN, etc) trained in the use of the equipment must be available at the rural (“originating”) site to “present” the patient and perform any “hands-on” activities to successfully complete the exam.
For example, examination of the lungs requires placement of a stethoscope to auscultate breath sounds, or a neurological diagnostic exam may require testing a patient’s reflexes. In certain cases (i.e. some dermatology or mental health appointments) a presenter with a clinical background is not necessary, because the presenter may only need to operate the digital video camera.
What patients are candidates for telemedicine?
The decision to use the telemedicine visit as a means to provide health care services ultimately rests with the health care provider. The patient’s clinical condition should be suited for live visual and audio presentation and within the technical capabilities of the equipment.
Joining the cutting-edge group of physicians utilizing the RTN’s equipment and connectivity is easy. RTN provides physician practices and hospitals equipment, hands-on training, technical support and expertise for telemedicine.
For more information, contact Philip Wolford, RTN Telemedicine Coordinator, at 814/452-5766 or send email.
Physicians, please click here for more information about the Regional Telemedicine Network.
Physicians, please click here for more in formation regarding information on billing codes for telemedicine.