NEW ORLEANS – Telemedicine inpatient consultations are a relatively new component in health care, but they could help address the problem of infectious disease physician shortages, particularly in rural communities, according to Lewis McCurdy, MD.
Dr. McCurdy of Carolinas HealthCare System in Charlotte, N.C., shared his experience providing virtual consultations for inpatients at a rural community hospital, noting that the approach was well received by patients, and that uptake by providers doubled during the first year.
Further, the virtual consultations appeared to have important clinical benefits, because very few patients had to be transferred to higher-level acuity facilities. The consultations seemed to help providers with challenging situations that they might not have felt comfortable managing otherwise, such as bloodstream infections, he said at the combined annual meetings of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, the HIV Medicine Association, and the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society.
In a video interview, Dr. McCurdy discussed the development of the process for using telemedicine for inpatient consultations, outcomes after about 18 months at one facility, and challenges of providing telemedicine services.
The approach could be very helpful for smaller communities without an infectious disease provider, Dr. McCurdy said.
“This allows us to sort of expand our expertise into those communities on a more efficiently scaled basis,” he explained. “So, it does provide one solution to trying to meet the demand in the community for ID expertise.”
Dr. McCurdy reported having no disclosures.