Adaption and Implication of Telemedicine in Rural Healthcare Delivery throughout the United States

Providing healthcare in rural areas introduces a unique set of challenges. One such challenge is the disproportionate allocation of medical professionals. Only ten percent of physicians practice in rural settings despite nearly one fourth of the population living in rural areas. Because of the inconvenience and effort seeking care causes, rural patients often delay receiving the care they need. This lack of consistent care in rural areas actually leads to more complex and costly conditions when simple problems develop into serious complications. Telemedicine was identified as an essential tool to addressing healthcare locality disparities. This paper looks at the correlation of healthcare quality measures and telemedicine implementation rates in an effort to quantify utility gained by implementing these systems. This was done by joining two national data sets; the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) 'Hospital Compare', which provides quality measures by hospital, and Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) data set which shows various technology implemented in various healthcare settings. From this data, an area of particular growth, cardiac care focused telemedicine, was identified. However, compared to other telemedicine system types (such as radiology or intensive care) that have fairly consistent implementation rates across all hospital types, cardiac care telemedicine systems are far less implemented in critical access hospitals than in general or academic settings. These findings lead us to investigate possible barriers to implementation and the correlation between quality measures and the presence of telemedicine systems at the institution.