Abstract
The impact of the type of care on outcomes was reviewed for patients seen in rural, critical access hospitals. The purpose of this study was to compare telemedicine with traditional emergency medical care delivery. A randomized retrospective chart review was conducted to identify if patient outcomes improve with use of telemedicine in the emergency department. Four-hundred charts for admission diagnoses of pneumonia, sepsis, myocardial infarction, and stroke were reviewed. Outcomes compared were: time until provider interaction with patient, time until diagnostic implementation, time until treatment, time until transfer, length of hospitalization, and incidence of mortality. The central finding concluded that telemedicine, used in critical access emergency departments, demonstrated a statistically significant difference when compared to traditional emergency medical care delivery for decreasing care times, length of hospitalization, and mortality for all diagnoses. In contrast however, for the diagnosis of pneumonia the results show time until transport was shorter with traditional emergency medical care delivery. The main benefits of this study were that telemedicine, when utilized in critical access emergency departments, can improve patient's time until care implementation and decrease their risk of mortality with the diagnoses of pneumonia, sepsis, myocardial infarction, and stroke.