Abstract
The Interhospital Telemedicine Pilot Project
Highlights
Tertiary level specialist input may be needed for patients in a District General Hospital (DGH) Emergency department to help with diagnosis or to provide complex care beyond DGH capacity
Expected Impact This study has shown that, in a well run DGH ED with regular links to a tertiary centre, the common presentations which require specialist advice can be managed with the use of protocols, supplemented by radiology image transmission (PACS) and that, contrary to expectation, a specialist history and /or patient imaging is rarely critical in deciding on management
We have collected detailed information on the patients transferred from a DGH ED to a specialist centre and admitted locally over 6 months
Summary
Tertiary level specialist input may be needed for patients in a District General Hospital (DGH) Emergency department to help with diagnosis or to provide complex care beyond DGH capacity. There are other patients in whom the need for early specialist input goes unrecognised and, as a result, they do badly These difficulties in interhospital communication and patient transfer might be helped by use of real time video conferencing (‘telemedicine’) between patient and local clinician at one end and specialist clinician at the other. This could confirm the need for transfer but allow it to be timed more appropriately or support continued care in the secondary care hospital. Aims To determine whether use of real time videoconferencing for all specialist consultations between the HGH ED and Oxford: 1. was feasible. 2. was acceptable to patients and clinicians 3.had potential to improve patient safety and reduce waste of resources
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