Telehealth: Money and mission in one sustainable package

by Gienna Shaw, FierceHealthIT Whenever I write about telehealth, I still picture the first remote technology I ever saw at a trade show. The computer had a large monitor with a camera and microphone practically duct taped atop it, the whole ungainly contraption perched upon a spindly metal cart. I guess you could call it mobile health ... in that a nurse could wheel the cart into the patient's room. Not so long ago, healthcare leaders were still unsure about the financial ROI or the clinical benefits of such technologies. In what seems like a very short time, though, telehealth programs have become established service lines in many hospitals and health systems. And today it's clear that telehealth can save lives, reduce costs, improve patient access to care and increase market share. Throughout our newest eBook, Telehealth Monitoring: Creating profitable, sustainable programs, it strikes me that the people we interviewed are talking about money and mission--the two big question marks back in the days when we still called computer carts "COWs." To learn more about a number of successful programs, including the latest efforts at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Health System, read the full commentary at FierceHealthIT.
Source: hospital impact - Category: Health Managers Authors: Source Type: blogs