Why your next ER visit

may be virtual
Telehealth: A game changer for emergency medicine

The ER at a glance:
What emergency medicine looks like in America

Each year, 130.4 million The average wait time The average overall
people visit emergency before seeing a doctor length of stay is about
rooms. is about 30 minutes. 2 hours.

14 minutes 53 minutes
Colorado and Utah have the The state with the longest
shortest average wait time. average wait time is Maryland.

105 minutes 212 minutes

The state with the shortest The longest average
average overall length of overall length of stay is in
stay is Minnesota. the District of Columbia.

Who goes to the ER?

The most frequent reasons that people visit the ER are:

Seriousness of the
medical problem 77.0%
Doctor's office or
clinic not open 11.8%
Lack of access to
other provider 7.0%

Most studies find that at least

30% of emergency room visits are non-urgent
The 4% of America's doctors who work in emergency medicine provide:

Due to lack
11% of all outpatient visits 28% of all acute care visits of access to other
providers,
uninsured adults
are twice as likely
to visit the ER
than those with
1/2 of all acute care 2/3 of all acute care private coverage.
visits by Medicaid and visits by the uninsured
CHIP beneficiaries

Healthcare costs are rising,

but more efficient emergency rooms can help
2015 U.S. Healthcare Spending: 2025 U.S. Healthcare Spending:
17.8% of GDP 19.9% of GDP

U.S. healthcare spending Overall healthcare spending Emergency physicians play an

reached $3.2 trillion in is projected to increase at a important role in managing
2015, accounting for rate of 5.6% a year. By 2025, inpatient care costs. Of the
17.8% of the GDP. it is expected to account for 130.4 million ER visits
19.9% of the GDP. annually, 12.2 million (9.4%)
result in hospital admissions.

The average cost of a compre- A key driver of increasing costs Between 13.7% and 27.1%
hensive emergency room visit is inpatient care, accounting of ER visits could be treated at
is $922. The average cost of an for 31% of America's health- other facilities like retail clinics
inpatient stay is 10x higher at care expenses. or urgent care centers. The
$9,200. potential cost savings of treating
these cases outside of the ER is
$4.4 billion.

Telehealth can reduce overall costs

and keep people out of the hospital

The average estimated 20% of ER visits require A study of approximately

cost for a telehealth visit follow-up care for similar 1,500 older adults found that
is just $40 to $50. conditions, while only 6% telehealth was able to elimi-
of telehealth visits do. nate nearly 1 in 5 ER visits.

Regular use of telehealth services in nursing homes could save Medicare

about $151,000 a year per facility in reduced inpatient admissions.

Early evidence of telehealth's success

The Veterans Health Administration saved nearly $1 billion in 2012 after implementing
telehealth and other mobile health services. Annual savings per patient were $6,500.

After Mercy Health introduced their Virtual Care Center in 2015, expected
inpatient lengths of stay decreased by 40%.

At Aurora Sinai Medical Center, the use of telehealth has reduced door-to-doctor times by 75%.

New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical Center joined forces to create the
NYP-Weill Cornell ED Telehealth Express Care Service in 2016.

Within two months the service had reduced average ER visits from 4 hours to just 30
minutes for patients with minor complaints.

At Fuse by Cardinal Health, our innovation center, we work alongside customers to solve complex
healthcare challenges and create solutions that transform the future of health and wellness. We are
looking closely at how emerging technologies, including telehealth, can make care delivery more
efficient in acute and other settings.
Learn more at http://www.cardinalhealth.com/Fuse

Sources:
http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR280.html

https://projects.propublica.org/emergency/

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr090.pdf

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/emergency-department.htm

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4156292/#R9

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3412873/

https://www.cms.gov/researchstatistics-data-and-systems/staistics-trends-andreports/nationalhealthexpenddata/downloads/highlights.pdf

https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-andReports/NationalHealthExpendData/Downloads/proj2016.pdf

http://www.connectwithcare.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Medicare-Acute-Care-Telehealth-Feasibility.pdf

http://www.aha.org/content/16/16telehealthissuebrief.pdf

http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/nyp-weill-cornell-telehealth-program-slashes-ertimes-patients-minor-complaints

http://www.healthcareinformatics.com/article/telemedicine/aurora-health-care-telehealth-use-improving-erpatient-flow

https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/research/blog/june-2015/is-telemedicine-aviable-alternative-to-ambulance.aspx