The OffSiteCare Solution - Empowering Rural Hospitals
to Deliver High-Quality Patient Care Via Robotic Telemedicine
Intensive care is one of the hospital's most complex and expensive medical systems. More than four million patients are admitted to intensive care units (ICUs) in the USA each year, and approximately 500,000 of these patients do not survive. Mortality rates for patients admitted to the ICU average 10-20% in most hospitals.1 It is estimated that while ICU patients occupy between 5-10% of inpatient beds in hospitals throughout the USA, the associated expense is 20-35% of total hospital costs.1 Further, an average ICU patient experiences 1.7 errors per day, and 20% of patients may sustain a serious adverse event during their hospitalization in a critical care unit.1
Attention has shifted to improving patient safety, delivery of quality care, reducing medical errors and reducing health care costs - issues that command the majority of attention from most hospital boards. These issues also cause many hospitals to reassess how they deliver care among their sickest patients - those in ICU. The LeapFrog Group has called for full-time intensivist staffing as a way to save as many as 50,000 lives per year. However, it is estimated that there are fewer than 6000 actively-practicing intensivists in the USA, and only 13% of ICU patients receive dedicated intensivist care.
As the American population ages over the next few decades, the demand for critical care and ICU services is projected to rise substantially.2 At present, four times as many full-time intensivists than are currently practicing would be needed to provide around-the-clock staffing at more than 7000 ICUs nationwide. This shortage will grow more acute, and is compounded by the fact that not all hospitals are successful at recruiting intensivists. The combination of financial constraints and a shortage of these specialists presents a major obstacle to the adoption of ICU intensivist staffing, especially in smaller facilities. That's why a new approach is needed - to make these limited resources go farther - and the introduction of robotic telemedicine from OffSiteCare has already been shown to be successful in meeting these challenges.
A Transformative Solution
Due to ongoing financial challenges and limited availability of intensivists, hospitals are turning to telemedicine as a way to maximize resources and improve quality of care. By using medical robots at remote hospitals, physicians at a central site can meet the needs of multiple facilities through remote presence, reducing or eliminating the need to be physically present at the patient's bedside. An FDA-cleared solution, the robot enables remote physicians to literally 'be' at the patient bedside and proactively respond to patient care needs just as they would do if they were physically at the hospital.
Due to ongoing financial challenges and limited availability of intensivists, hospitals are turning to telemedicine as a way to maximize resources and improve quality of care. By using medical robots at remote hospitals, physicians at a central site can meet the needs of multiple facilities through remote presence, reducing or eliminating the need to be physically present at the patient's bedside. An FDA-cleared solution, the robot enables remote physicians to literally 'be' at the patient bedside and proactively respond to patient care needs just as they would do if they were physically at the hospital.
Instead of being limited to "stabilize-and-ship," the rural hospitals can safely keep and successfully treat far more difficult cases. And as the acuity of care increases, the profitability of the hospital increases as well. Patients can remain at their local facility, receiving quality care. It's better for the patient, better for their families, better for the community, and better for the financial health of the hospital.
1. "Improving Care in the ICU", A Joint Commission Resources Mission publication, pg. 3, 2004.
2. Angus DC, Kelley MA, Schmitz RJ, et al: Caring for the critically ill patient. Current and projected workforce requirements for care of the critically ill and patients with pulmonary disease: Can we meet the requirements of an aging population? JAMA 2000; 284:2762-2770