Telemedicine services can be difficult to bill and aren’t a profit center, but they are annually saving one Florida hospital approximately $1 million in avoidable costs. They’re improving Tallahassee Memorial Hospital (TMH) patients’ overall wellness levels, too, reported Healthcare IT News‘ Bill Sawicki.

TMH is the only Level 2 facility in its 18-county service region and typically operates at or near patient capacity.

Tallahassee Memorial “is surrounded by rural communities, many of which have very limited health resources and no public transportation,” the facility’s director of regional development, population health and telemedicine, Lauren Faison, told Sawicki.

Since launching its telehealth services via the Vidyo platform, TMH’s readmission rates have fallen — especially among members of certain chronic disease management patient populations (COPD, heart failure, etc.).

“Generally, these patients have been hospitalized and require follow up appointments to ensure the healing process is moving along properly; however, they often cannot get to their follow-up appointment,” she said.

Concurrently, patient satisfaction scores have increased since the organization’s adoption of telemedicine. Its remote services function as loss leaders, Faison explained, but more than pay for themselves by improving care delivery efficiency and patient outcomes.

Read the whole story here, in Healthcare IT News.