Extent of telehealth use in rural and urban hospitals.
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2014-11-14
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Abstract
Key Findings Data from 4 727 hospitals in the 2013 HIMSS Analytics database yielded these findings 1 Two thirds 66 0 of rural defined as nonmetropolitan and 68 0 of urban had no telehealth services or were only in the process of implementing a telehealth application One third 34 0 rural and 32 0 urban had at least one telehealth application currently in use 2 Among hospitals with live and operational telehealth services 61 4 indicated only a single department program with an operational telehealth service and 38 6 indicated two or more departments programs with operational telehealth services Rural hospitals were significantly less likely to have multiple services 35 2 than were urban hospitals 42 1 3 Hospitals that were more likely to have implemented at least one telehealth service were academic medical centers not for profit institutions hospitals belonging to integrated delivery systems and larger institutions in terms of FTEs but not licensed beds Rural and urban hospitals did not differ significantly in overall telehealth implementation rates 4 Urban and rural hospitals did differ in the department where telehealth was implemented Urban hospitals were more likely than rural hospitals to have operational telehealth implementations in cardiology stroke heart attack programs 7 4 vs 6 2 neurology 4 4 vs 2 1 and obstetrics gynecology NICU pediatrics 3 8 vs 2 5 In contrast rural hospitals were more likely than urban hospital to have operational telehealth implementations in radiology departments 17 7 vs 13 9 and in emergency trauma care 8 8 vs 6 3