IMPLEMENTING A TELEMEDICINE SOLUTON

Background Information:

Grand Hospital is located in a somewhat rural area Midwestern state. It is a 209 bed, community, not-profit entity offering a broad range of inpatient and outpatient services. Employing approx. 1,600 people (1,250 of full time), and having a medical staff of more than 225 providers, grand hospital has annual operating budget that exceeds $130 million, possesses net assets of more than $150 million, and is one of only a small number of organizations in this market with an A credit rating from Moody’s Standard & Poor’s, and Fitch Ratings. Operating in a remarkably competitive market (there are roughly 100 hospitals within 75 minutes driving time of Grand Hospital), the organization is one of the few in the region-----proprietary or not-for-profit—that have consistently realized positive operating margins. Grand attends on an annual basis to the health care needs of more than 11,000 inpatients and 160,000 outpatients, addressing more than 36 % of its primary service area’s consumption of hospital services. In expansion mode and currently in the midst of $57 million in construction and renovation projects, the hospital is struggling to recruit doctors, both to meet the health care needs of the expanding population of the service area and to succeed retiring doctors.

            Grand Hospital has been an early adopter of health care information systems and currently employs a proprietary health care information system that provides (among other components)

• Patient registration and revenue management
• EHR with computerized physician order entry (CPOE)
• Imaging via a PACS
• Laboratory management
• Pharmacy management

If you were charged with bringing telemedicine to Grand Hospital within the next 12-18 months, what first steps would you take toward system acquisition?

What consideration would you be most concerned about addressing and why?

Who would you involve in the planning process and why?