Emergency room wait times and overcrowding keep getting worse at most hospitals.
U. Of Texas and Pudue U propose having off-site MD’s interview incoming ER patients using telemedicine to get vital signs and triage patients before on-site ER specialists treat them in person
According to the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, from 2000 to 2015, the number of ER visits in the U.S. increased 27% from 108 million to nearly 137 million. With the sharp rise in ER visits and critical shortages of emergency care physicians, ER overcrowding is not abating, particularly as the COVID-19 pandemic strains the capacity of hospitals nationwide. ...snip... For example, when there is an influx of emergency patients, telemedicine enables on-site nurse practitioners or physician assistants to treat patients with minor conditions under the remote supervision of off-site physicians. Sun said this is important because many hospitals require that all patients be seen by an attending physician. With telemedicine, on-call physicians can work from their office without traveling to the ER. Having an on-call physician available through telemedicine also can speed up the ordering of lab work, so that those processes can start long before they otherwise would, and physicians can pivot to their administrative tasks more quickly in between visits.
