Growing healthcare costs and specialist shortages continue to rise, causing fluctuations in high-quality pediatric and neonatal hospital care. The impact is especially prevalent in community-based facilities where the need for specialized expertise outweighs the availability of in-house specialists. In recent years, telemedicine has entered the conversation, offering a promising solution. By integrating Tele-Pediatrics and Tele-NICU services with in-house services, hospitals are bridging care gaps, reducing patient transfers and ensuring children and newborns receive the highest standard of care while staying close to home.
Why Tele-Pediatrics and Tele-NICU is so Important
Telemedicine has grown significantly in the past decade. Between July and December of 2020, when COVID-19 was in full swing, the CDC reported over 12 million pediatric telemedicine visits. This surge in telemedicine services shows how telemedicine addresses critical care shortages, particularly for pediatric and neonatology patients in times of need.
For hospitals, tele-pediatrics and tele-NICU services provide a cost-effective solution to the growing problem of the lack of access to subspecialists, especially during night shifts, weekends or holidays. Many hospitals rely on locum tenens physicians to fill these gaps, but these temporary doctors come at a high cost and often lack the long-term continuity patients need. According to one report, hiring general locum tenens ranges from $150 to $300 per hour, leading to an annual locum tenens cost exceeding $2 billion across the U.S. healthcare system.
How Telemedicine Saves Costs and Improves Care Continuity
Tele-Pediatrics and Tele-NICU services allow hospitals to avoid the financial burden of locum tenens staffing while maintaining continuous specialist coverage. Instead of recruiting full-time pediatricians or neonatologists, which may not be physically possible, telemedicine offers a solution: providing hospitals access to board-certified pediatricians and neonatologists on an as-needed or long-term basis.
The financial benefits are clear. A study from the National Library of Medicine found that among their research, they only found a range of cost savings due to Tele-Pediatrics. It varied from $48.50 to $344.64 in savings per appointment. When considering the volume of pediatric patients most hospitals process daily, the cost savings are hard to ignore. This cost reduction stems from fewer patient transfers and the ability to keep more patients in-house, which minimizes the logistical costs of transferring children to tertiary care facilities miles away.
But it’s not just about cost savings. Continuity of care is improved when patients can stay in their local hospital and still receive specialized care, enhancing patient outcomes, reducing family stress and fostering a stronger relationship between families and their local healthcare providers.
Case Study: WakeMed Health & Hospitals
One example of how Tele-Pediatrics can transform hospital care comes from WakeMed Health & Hospitals in Raleigh, North Carolina. WakeMed faced a significant challenge when its long-standing pediatric neurology provider shifted its focus to outpatient care, leaving a critical gap in inpatient coverage. Recruiting in-house pediatric neurologists wasn’t a financially sustainable option for WakeMed, given the need for 24/7 coverage.
As a result, they turned to Eagle Telemedicine. By integrating Eagle’s Tele-Pediatrics services, WakeMed could provide continuous pediatric neurology coverage without costly locum tenens or permanent hires. WakeMed’s Executive Director of Women & Children’s Services, Jeff Langdon, explained that the integration of telemedicine allowed them to offer 24/7 access to pediatric neurology expertise. This solution ensured that patients received high-quality care in-house, reducing their need for transfers.
The success of this program has led WakeMed to consider expanding telemedicine across its entire system, proving the long-term viability of these services in addressing specialist shortages.
Enhancing Patient Outcomes
Beyond cost savings, telemedicine services have a direct impact on patient care. As hospitals begin to suffer financially, NICU services are some of the first to disappear. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), rural US counties have suffered from losing hospital-based obstetric services. The reduction is directly associated with increased preterm births, births in hospitals without obstetric units and out-of-hospital births. The NIH found that hospitals that deliver less than 500 newborns per year experience three times the early neonatal mortality rate compared to hospitals with more than 1500 births per year. With the introduction of tele-NICU services, hospitals in these areas increasingly saw a reduction in neonatal mortality rates due to faster access to specialized care and early interventions. The ability to consult with a neonatologist in real-time ensures newborns receive immediate care. Improved care timing is particularly vital for high-risk infants.
Steps into the Future of Pediatric and Neonatal Care
Tele-Pediatrics and Tele-NICU services offer a sustainable, cost-effective solution to some of the most pressing challenges facing hospitals today. As specialist shortages grow and healthcare costs rise, hospitals that implement telemedicine are better positioned to provide continuous, high-quality care to their youngest and most vulnerable patients.
For hospitals looking to modernize their pediatric and neonatal care, the question isn’t whether to adopt telemedicine but when. With proven success in reducing costs, improving patient outcomes and enhancing continuity of care, Tele-Pediatrics and Tele-NICU are not just trends. They are the future of better, specialized pediatric healthcare. Contact us today to learn more about what Eagle Telemedicine’s Tele-Pediatrics and Tele-NICU can do for your hospital.
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