1 Department of Health Policy and Management, University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
2 Department of Biomedical Informatics, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Telemed J E Health. 2018 Jul;24(7):510-516. doi: 10.1089/tmj.2017.0076. Epub 2018 Jan 2.
Nursing homes (NHs) provide care to a complex patient population and face the ongoing challenge of meeting resident needs for specialty care. A NH telemedicine care model could improve access to remote specialty providers.
Little is known about provider interest in telemedicine for specialty consults in the NH setting. The goal of this study was to survey a national sample of NH physicians and advanced practice providers to document their views on telemedicine for providing specialty consults in the NH.
We surveyed physician and advanced practice providers who attended the 2016 AMDA-The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine Annual Conference about their likelihood of referral to and perceptions of a telemedicine program for providing specialty consults in the NH.
We received surveys from 524 of the 1,274 conference attendees for a 41.1% response rate. Respondents expressed confidence in the ability of telemedicine to fill existing service gaps and provide appropriate, timelier care. Providers showed the highest level of interest in telemedicine for dermatology, geriatric psychiatry, and infectious disease. Only 13% of respondents indicated that telemedicine was available for use in one of their facilities.
There appears to be unmet demand for telemedicine in NHs for providing specialty consults to residents.
The responses of NH providers suggest support for the concept of telemedicine as a modality of care that can be used to offer specialty consults to NH residents.
养老院（NHs）为复杂的患者群体提供护理，并面临着满足居民对专科护理需求的持续挑战。NH 远程医疗护理模式可以改善远程专科提供者的可及性。
关于 NH 环境中远程医疗进行专科咨询的提供者的兴趣，知之甚少。本研究的目的是调查全国范围内的 NH 医生和高级执业医师样本，记录他们对 NH 远程医疗提供专科咨询的看法。
我们调查了参加 2016 年 AMDA-美国后急性和长期护理医学协会会议的医生和高级执业医师，了解他们向 NH 远程医疗专科咨询计划转诊的可能性和对该计划的看法。
我们从 1274 名会议参会者中收到了 524 份调查，回复率为 41.1%。受访者对远程医疗填补现有服务空白和提供适当、及时护理的能力表示有信心。提供者对远程医疗在皮肤病学、老年精神病学和传染病方面最感兴趣。只有 13%的受访者表示他们的一家机构可以使用远程医疗。
NH 提供专科咨询的远程医疗似乎存在未满足的需求。
NH 提供者的反应表明他们支持远程医疗作为一种护理模式的概念，可以用于为 NH 居民提供专科咨询。
