San Diego ED leverages telemedicine in a bid to ease crowding, long wait times.

In a study dubbed Emergency Department Telemedicine Initiative to Rapidly Accommodate in Times of Emergency (EDTITRATE), investigators at the University of California San Diego Health System are gauging whether remote physicians can be quickly and cost-effectively mobilized to evaluate patients when the ED is busy. While there have been administrative hurdles involved with implementing the approach, investigators say the strategy could offer big savings in terms of time and efficiency. Onsite nurses facilitate telemedicine encounters, utilizing technology that enables remote physicians to evaluate patients. While both patients and providers give the telemedicine encounters high marks, managing the workflow is challenging. Investigators say the approach could produce significant gains in efficiency, including the possibility that a single on-call physician could remotely treat patients from multiple ED sites.