Provider-to-provider telehealth systems — nationally implemented with a five-year roll-out in emergency departments, correctional institutions, nursing homes, and physician offices — can save $4.28 billion annually, according to research conducted by the Boston-based Center for Information Technology Leadership (CITL), a nonprofit research center based at Partners HealthCare System Inc. in Boston.
CITL examined the overall value of three telehealth technology systems –– store-and-forward, real-time video, and a hybrid model that combines the first two –– in four different healthcare settings: emergency departments, correctional institutions, nursing homes, and physician offices. CITL projects the robust hybrid model to be the most cost-effective system of the three.
The full report, "The Value of Provider-to-Provider Telehealth Technologies," is available on the CITL Web site, and a soft-bound copy is available from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.
The study was funded by grants from the AT&T Center for Telehealth Research and Policy at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, the O'Donnell Foundation, AT&T Foundation, and the Harris and Eliza Kempner Fund.
