Clinical effectiveness and cost analysis of patient referral by videoconferencing in orthopaedics

The clinical effectiveness and costs of videoconferencing in orthopaedics between primary and secondary care were examined in an eight-month prospective, comparative study. The general surgery outpatient clinics of two Finnish district hospitals were compared: Peijas Hospital, with telemedicine, and Hyvinkaa Hospital, without it. The three study primary-care centres referred a total of 419 adult patients to the outpatient clinics. The population-based number of referrals to Peijas Hospital was similar to that to Hyvinkaa Hospital after adjusting for the proportion of older people living in the Hyvinkaa Hospital municipalities. Of the 225 patients referred to Peijas Hospital, 168 (75%) were given appointments at the outpatient clinic of surgery and the rest of the referred patients received a teleconsultation. All patients referred to Hyvinkaa Hospital were given appointments at the outpatient clinic. The direct costs of an outpatient visit were 45% greater per patient than for a teleconsultation, with a marginal cost decrease of EU48 for every new teleconsultation. A cost-minimization analysis of the alternative interventions showed a net benefit of EU2500 in favour of teleconsultations. The use of videoconferencing between primary and secondary care was modest in orthopaedics, although the use of this telemedicine method was shown to reduce direct costs and be cost-effective.