Looking to address the nationwide shortage of physicians specializing in infectious diseases, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) has formed a telemedicine-enabled company that aims to reduce transfers and keep patients in their own communities for treatment.
The new company, called Infectious Disease (ID) Connect, already serves 10 UPMC and five non-UPMC hospitals in Pennsylvania and surrounding states, and initially will focus on the more than 4,000 U.S. acute care hospitals with fewer than 300 beds, according to the health system’s officials. “These smaller facilities face an especially difficult time recruiting and retaining already scarce ID specialists,” said Rima Abdel-Massih, M.D., chief medical officer for ID Connect. “ID Connect can cost-effectively provide ID specialists, full-time or part-time, to augment existing staff.”
ID Connect, which is part of UPMC Enterprises—the health system’s innovation and commercialization arm—builds on work that has already been evolving at UPMC, as the health system’s network of hospitals has been providing ID services to patients via telemedicine for the past five years, demonstrating that this service can reduce patient transfers to tertiary facilities, reduce healthcare-associated infections, improve patient outcomes and decrease antibiotic misuse. Likewise, national studies of interventions by infectious disease specialists have shown that they produce shorter hospital stays, reduce readmissions and lower patient mortality, according to officials.
Abdel-Massih, who is also the director of tele-ID services at UPMC, and John Mellors, M.D., chief of the division of infectious diseases at UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh, are co-founders of the new company.
“With the growing threat of drug-resistant organisms and costly government penalties for healthcare-associated infections, it has never been more critical for hospitals to properly diagnose, treat and prevent such infections,” said Abdel-Massih. “However, with ID specialists in short supply, many hospitals, especially smaller, community facilities, are struggling to meet this need. ID Connect was created to fill that gap.”
Initially, the new company will be staffed by UPMC ID physicians who will continue to serve the health system, but as ID Connect grows into new markets, it will be hiring additional physicians to provide patient consultations, as well as expertise in antimicrobial stewardship and infection prevention and control, said David Zynn, president of ID Connect. Longer-term, he expects the company to serve post-acute care patients at home following hospital discharge and international facilities.
Zynn noted that nationwide, there is a major need for improved infectious disease care in hospitals, as healthcare-associated infections affect 5 to 10 percent of patients and result in more than $40 billion annually in hospital costs. Up to half of antibiotic prescriptions are unnecessary, leading not only to higher costs but potentially to harmful side effects and growing antibiotic resistance.
“As diagnosing and treating infectious diseases and ‘superbugs’ become increasingly complex, having access to infectious disease experts will be essential for every healthcare facility,” said Zynn. “Created by a health system that has led the way in both managing infectious diseases and implementing telemedicine, ID Connect is well-positioned to effectively serve hospitals and their patients.”
