Telemedicine Hospitals

Telemedicine combines telecommunications and video technologies to deliver specialized medical services across long distances. By improving access to health care in under-served areas, telemedicine can enhance both health status and economic development. In recent years, the increased reliability and speed of transmitting images, along with major transformations in the medical marketplace have converged to make telemedicine financially and logistically feasible. Accordingly, many state governments and the federal government have developed extensive programs to promote telemedicine. But before telemedicine can be prescribed as a panacea for rural health care, three central questions must be addressed: Does telemedicine improve rural health delivery? What role does it play in the economics of the health care industry? How necessary and effective are telemedicine government programs? This book describes the current diffusion of telemedicine and identifies the keys in its success. Telemedicine has not yet widely benefited rural health because small, rural hospitals generally lack the necessary financial and technical expertise. The lack of insurance reimbursement for telemedical consultations also remains a significant problem, although this hurdle has been overcome in hospitals where physicians work in a capitated-payment system.