Reducing the Cost of HealthCare -- video conferencing to reduce the amount of out patient care

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3767516

This paper “Reducing the Cost of Frequent Hospital Admissions for Congestive Heart Failure” discusses two ways to reduce costs created by out patient care for CHF. The First being the more technically advanced: using 2-way video conferencing with an “integrated electronic stethoscope” to check on patients and reduce hospital visits. The second being the simpler use of nurse phone calls to reduce the need for visits. The article states that the video conferencing saved 86% while regular telephone calls saved 84 % over the control. Their data comes from 37 CHF patients broke into three groups: one receiving care via video, the second over the phone and the third being a control with normal out patient care. The study lasted 6 months. This claim seems viable as it is accompanied by such definitive results. Although to see whether these kinds of methods could be used for cost savings in broader range of ailments would require a lot more testing.