Psychiatric inpatient care planning via telemedicine.
We assessed the costs of psychiatric inpatient care-planning consultations to remote areas using videoconferencing, instead of the conventional face-to-face consultations at a hospital. The data were collected from all wards at the department of psychiatry of Oulu University Hospital over 11 months. A total of 14 videoconferences were conducted with two primary-care centres located 220 km and 160 km from Oulu. During the same period, 20 conventional consultations at the Oulu University Hospital were also assessed. A questionnaire was completed by a total of 124 patients, relatives and health-care personnel; the response rate was about 90%. Of the respondents, 90% were satisfied with the quality of communication afforded by videoconferencing. At a workload of 20 patients per year, the cost of the videoconferences was FM2510 per patient; the cost of the conventional alternative was FM4750 per patient. At 50 care consultations per year, a remote municipality would save about FM117,000.
Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital of Oulu, Finland. marjaleena.mielonen@ppshp.fi
M L
ML
Mielonen
A
A
Ohinmaa
J
J
Moring
M
M
Isohanni
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D005387:Finland; D017721:Hospital Costs; D006785:Hospitals, University / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D010347:Patient Care Planning / Q000191:economics* / Q000458:organization & administration; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011567:Psychiatric Department, Hospital / Q000191:economics* / Q000458:organization & administration; D019114:Remote Consultation / Q000191:economics* / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000592:standards; D012650:Self Disclosure; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires