in a recent note, I discussed the cost savings associated with telemedicine using data collected by Anthem (see: Anthem Citing the Cost Savings of Providing Telehealth Services for Members). I want to follow up on this with reference to a recent article about the increasing sophistication of the telehealth kiosks that are being deployed by Tampa General internally for use by employees (see: Tampa General, OnMed launch telehealth station that can diagnose patients). Below is an excerpt from it:
Staff at Tampa General Hospital (TGH) now have a new way to access instant healthcare services via a self-contained telemedicine station located inside the hospital. TGH partnered with....OnMed to be the first to deploy the company's telemedicine station after six years of development. The stations feature advanced technology including thermal imaging, ultraviolet sanitization and facial recognition to operate as self-contained, unstaffed exam rooms....TGH is a 1,000-bed hospital with more than 8,000 full-time employees and 1,000 members on its medical staff....The unstaffed OnMed Station pods allow users to have real-time consultations with a doctor or advanced practice provider via high-definition video and audio. The station even allows doctors to prescribe and dispense hundreds of common medications through a secure, automated vault.....The stations include technology to measure patients' height, weight and body mass index, thermal imaging to read body temperature and diagnose infection and readings of blood pressure, respiration and blood oxygen saturation....The station can also provide patients with paper prescriptions, e-prescriptions to preferred pharmacies, referrals and self-service lab kits for diagnostic testing.
I like the analogy between a telehealth kiosk and the physician's examining room in this article. Telemedicine will have come of age when patients stop making a distinction between a visit with a physician or an advanced practice provider (APP) in an office versus a kiosk. By the way, an advanced practice provider is the term now used to lump together NPs and PAs (see: Ranks of NPs and PAs Expanding; Will Increasingly Dominate Primary Care). This proposition may sound unbelievable but I think that we are on a trajectory such that a telehealth kiosk may soon be a superior environment compared to an office visit. For example, how many physician offices are sanitized with UV. I am also impressed with the idea of dispensing kiosk on-site self-service lab kits for diagnostic testing.
It seems to me that the Tampa General Hospital plan to pilot their high-tech kiosks within the hospital for use only by employees is a great strategy. First of all, this ensures ready access by support personnel working in the hospital in case of technical failures of the kiosk. It's also provides a means to ensure that employees are not spreading infectious diseases among patients. Once the prototype stage for these new kiosks is completed, the hospital says it has plans to deploy them in other venues like airports, colleges, and hotels. I am also sure that providing an ECG reading from telehealth kiosks is also not too far in the future. For me, the most limiting factor in the growth of virtual visits is the number of healthcare professionals trained to use the technology.
This sounds like great technologies for locations where it wouldn't be cost-effective to put human providers. But this is in a hospital for heaven's sake! Why doesn't Tampa General just staff a walk-in clinic for employees? We do that at ARUP and it's extremely popular.
Posted by: Brian Jackson | October 25, 2019 at 02:55 PM