Today, psychiatric emergencies contribute to crowded ER rooms in many places. The availability of improved telemedicine resources holds promise to help alleviate this problem. EMR Transcription recently noted a video posted on the Healthcare IT News website. It describes an innovative way to help reduce Emergency Overflow rates caused by a high volume of psychiatric cases. This brief article discusses this development.

telemedicine - emr transcription

About Telemedicine

Telemedicine utilizes information technology to facilitate medical diagnoses and treatments in real time. This process already permits surgical specialists to conduct remote long-distance operations utilizing robots, for example. Telemedicine currently often involve utilizing a video connection as a portal. Numerous patients in remote areas access medical care today via the Internet.

Currently, a number of firms have developed programs in the field of telemedicine. Some of the best known firms include Telus Health, TeleHealth Services, Teladoc Health, NovoTalk, GlobalMed, Avizia, Snap MD, MD Live, American Well, and SOC Telemed. As options for telemedicine expand, the role of Information Technology appears likely to increase in many medical settings.

The CaroMont Case Study

The CaroMont Regional Medical Center in Gastonia, North Carolina reportedly receives roughly 250,000 patient contacts annually. Handling this high volume proves challenging. The hospital relied upon SOC Telemed to help it develop a procedure for sharply reducing the number of ER overflow hours resulting from a high demand for psychiatric services.

During the period covered in the study, a psychiatrist in a remote location evaluated emergency requests for patient admissions and discharges in the absence of an available psychiatrist in the ER Room. Trained psychiatric nurse assessors served as facilitators, waiting with the patient as the emergency room physician consulted with the expert. The use of remote video surveillance enabled the psychiatrist in another location to evaluate the condition of the patient, with the nurse’s assistance.

Successfully Reducing ER Psychiatric Overflow Hours

Reportedly, these long distance telemedicine consultations allowed the busy medical facility to sharply reduce the volume of Emergency Room overflow hours attributed to psychiatric case loads. The number fell from 1700 hours to 148 hours. This reduction increased the regional medical center’s ability to allocate its fewer than 500 patient beds more effectively.

EMR Transcription appreciates the growing role of telemedicine services in assisting patient care. While these developments may ultimately increase the need for rapid medical transcription services, they also promise to alleviate overcrowded Emergency Rooms in many places. The use of confidential medical transcription enables treating physicians to document their cases quickly and efficiently.

The Ongoing Role of Medical Transcription

The EMR Transcription company frequently transcribes videos. In the past, busy physicians usually dictated case reports onto audio tapes for transcription purposes. Today, videos facilitate the documentation process. Physicians who utilize telemedicine video consultations possess the capability to preserve (and even re-play) a psychiatric assessment exam at a future date. This process ultimately benefits patients in a previously impossible way!