For hospitals managing patients suffering from the coronavirus, the advantages of telemedicine are top of mind. The pandemic highlights a challenge telemedicine helps hospitals overcome: the physician shortage. Rural hospitals leverage hospitalists for coverage because there is a limited supply of critical care, infectious disease, neurology and other specialists. Community hospitals are often required to pay…
Read MoreHospitalist Focus on Metrics – Our Challenges Increase The practice of hospitalist medicine is a unique and challenging specialty. On one hand, the care of a patient by a Hospitalist is characterized by immense individual hospitalist responsibility for the medical care delivered to very critical patients. Appreciating that challenge and having the desire to live…
Read MoreIn the midst of the coronavirus crisis, hospitals in hotspot areas were overwhelmed and healthcare workers struggled to treat the thousands of patients across the country. As the virus gradually worked its way into more communities, there came a tipping point. Patients were still coming into emergency departments for heart attacks and strokes, but hospitals…
Read MoreLike most Americans, I am staying home with my family during the COVID-19 crisis. Social distancing is a good time for us to take life a little more slowly and reconnect with one another. It also gives me time to put our current world situation in perspective. Perspective is easy to lose in times of…
Read MoreDr. Rania Saleh, an infectious disease specialist with Eagle Telemedicine, had not admitted any COVID-19 patients at the time of this writing. However, she is preparing alongside her onsite clinical teams at rural Wisconsin hospitals. “My space is quiet right now,” she says. “My time is spent educating physicians and nurses, patients and patients’ families on proper…
Read MoreYou don’t meet many healthcare professionals with engineering backgrounds. At first glance the two fields don’t go together. It surprises me how often I rely on my engineering past to bring a fresh perspective to healthcare.
Read MoreTelemedicine. The evolution continues. For hospital administrators today, the conversation has switched from “What is Telemedicine?” to “How do I get a Telemedicine program started?” In every situation where inpatient telemedicine is considered, return on investment (ROI) factors prominently in the decision. The four key factors hospitals should consider: Impact on transfers, improved clinical metrics, patient and family satisfaction, and physician retention.
Read MoreThe news of a major acquisition can send tremors through an industry, whether it’s technology or tires, aerospace or pharmaceuticals. However, in the telemedicine industry, it’s a different story.
Read MoreWe’ve discussed in previous blog posts how changes in the provider population are creating opportunities for telemedicine. Because today’s dwindling supply of physicians places a greater premium on work-life balance than their forebears did, telemedicine answers a hospital’s ongoing challenge to provide consistent nighttime coverage. The patient population is also changing. And that means new opportunities for telemedicine, too.
Read MoreWe’ve probably all heard the announcements by airline pilots warning that “we might encounter some turbulence” on the flight ahead. For the hospital industry—at least as far as the physician shortage is concerned—the announcements are long since over. We’re flying directly through the turbulence as we enter 2020, and it’s only going to get bumpier in the decade ahead.
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