Abstract

Hospital Use among Children Serving by Paediatric Neurology Telemedicine Clinics in Rural Areas

Author(s): Jonathon Clayfield

Exposures

Consultation modality (telemedicine or in person) in the outpatient neurology clinics.

Principal results and actions

The hospital's electronic medical records were mined for demographic and clinical data. The relationship between patients' use of the emergency room and hospitalizations and the type of outpatient neurology care was assessed. Multivariable negative binomial regression was used to examine hospital utilization related to both all-cause and neurologic conditions in both the overall and matched samples.

Conclusion

When compared to in-person consultations, real-time, audiovisual telemedicine care for pediatric neurology patients was related with lower hospital utilization, showing that high-cost hospital encounters can be avoided by enhancing subspecialty access.