In Patient Hospital Consultations

In patient hospital consultations can help reduce congestion by cutting down on readmission. In many circumstances, patients receive sporadic or incomplete care in the hospital room. They are visited several times by doctors and then handled by nurses. Hospital pressures and low staff often result in people being released from hospitals early before they can be properly diagnosed and treated. Rural hospitals only have a limited number of staff on hand at any time. They may have doctors working in several different locations on different time schedules. Staff members may be more focused on saving and stabilizing patients than preventing those who are healthy from becoming sick again.

Telehealth allows another set of eyes to analyze and spend time with a patient before they are released. In an in patient hospital consultation, the patient sits in front of a set of high definition cameras and describes their symptoms and circumstances. A doctor performing telehealth may then ask a series of questions and engage in a dialogue with a patient. In addition to the answers and body language of the patient, the professional would consult with any medical professionals who dealt with the patient in person. The telehealth professional allows an individual to receive extra care that rural hospitals may not be able to provide in a timely manner.

Telehealth also ensures that a hospital can meet infectious disease standards. These standards can be difficult for smaller hospitals with antiquated training and technology to meet. When telehealth professionals interact with a large percentage of a hospital's patients, they can ask questions and gain insight to help them know the antimicrobial practices of the hospital overall. Such information can help these professionals suggest ways in which both patients and nurses can maintain standards of cleanliness and disinfection. All of this help can be done at relatively low costs. The doctors at the other end of the videoconference do not have to be paid for travel to and from a possible remote location.