Telemedicine Program

We at Capstone Health Consultants are pleased to provide the Board of Directors of Utopia University Medical Center our recommendations regarding design, development, and deployment of a multi-disciplinary Telemedicine program for outlying clinics.

In this document we will discuss the benefits and challenges that exist in setting up such a service. We will then review in detail the important ethical and legal considerations standards that must be met, as well as cost, training and implementation issues that we feel will arise. Lastly, we will discuss possible future developments and project return on investment.

Utopia University Medical Center

Utopia University Medical Center (UUMC) is at the center of a thriving network of schools, clinics, and health-related organizations that serves the greater Utopian area. Established over 40 years ago, the mission of UUMC remains, as it has from the beginning, to “advance health and wellness through education, research, and patient care” through the core values of “innovation, collaboration, accountability, respect and excellence” (St Jude Hospital). With well over 375 licensed beds, UUMC had over 18,000 admissions last year and over 60,000 emergency department visits. In addition, affiliated medical clinics in the greater Utopian area had over 370,000 outpatient clinic visits. A broad set of specialty services is provided in these clinics including everything from audiology to wound care.

While those clinics and patients located in close proximity to UUMC are able to enjoy sub-specialty services, there is a growing concern that patients living in the rural sections of the state have either no access to such services in outlying clinics or must travel hundreds of mile...

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...ng and growing population will surely contribute to these challenges. A comprehensive understanding of the landscape for each of these areas is vital for successful development and implementation of a telemedicine program.

The technical issues that need to be addressed are fairly straightforward and deal largely with the set-up and maintenance of a telemedicine clinic. A clear understanding of the stakeholders in such a program is required along with a delineation of services that will initially be provided by the telemedicine clinics. As we have mentioned, we believe starting off with neurology, dermatology, and rheumatology clinics in three rural offices is the best way to start the telemedicine initiative. It of course follows that hardware that meets both communication and privacy standards will need to be acquired along with personnel hiring and training.