This project was a comparative effectiveness study of North Dakota trauma patients to measure the impact of telemedicine-enabled emergency care between 2008-2014 on: 1) time to arrival at definitive care; 2) diagnostic imaging performed in rural hospitals; 3) probability of transfer to tertiary trauma center; and 4) survival. Analyses indicated that emergency department telemedicine was used for more severely injured rural trauma patients and also decreased rural emergency department length of stay for transferred trauma patients. This research measured the effectiveness of telemedicine to influence rural trauma care in a real-world application.

Publications

• Emergency Department Telemedicine Is Used for More Severely Injured Rural Trauma Patients, but Does Not Decrease Transfer: A Cohort Study
  Journal Article
  Rural Telehealth Research Center
  Date: 02/2017
  Traumatic injury is a leading cause of death in the U.S. Rural residents have limited access to trauma care, and telemedicine has been proposed to improve trauma care locally. This study describes patient-level factors associated with telemedicine and measures the association between telemedicine consultation and interhospital transfer.
• Telemedicine Penetration and Consultation Among Rural Trauma Patients in Critical Access Hospital Emergency Departments in North Dakota
  Policy Brief
  Rural Telehealth Research Center
  Date: 09/2016
  This study describes the penetration of ED-based telemedicine in North Dakota critical access hospitals and its use for rural trauma patients. Investigators showed that telemedicine subscription increased to 81 percent of rural North Dakota hospitals, and 11 percent of patients in a telemedicine-capable ED used telemedicine as part of their care.
• Telemedicine Use Decreases Rural Emergency Department Length of Stay for Transferred North Dakota Trauma Patients
  Journal Article
  Rural Telehealth Research Center
  Date: 07/2017
  This article examines the use of telemedicine to help improve care for trauma patients and to try to close the gap between rural and urban outcomes for these patients. The study involved patients treated in critical access hospitals and emergency departments.