Dartmouth Health: Telehealth Programs for ICU, Emergency Rooms are too Expensive to Keep Going

Dartmouth Health is ending programs that provide long-distance help to intensive care units and emergency departments in 13 rural hospitals throughout New Hampshire and Vermont, saying the service costs too much to continue.

The programs, called Tele-ICU and Tele-ED, are among about 20 types of telehealth services that Dartmouth Health runs under its 14-year-old Connected Care program. They allow more experienced physicians and other health providers at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center to assist emergency and intensive-care units at smaller, rural hospitals that don’t have such expertise on hand.

A statement released by Dartmouth Health said “Tele-ICU and Tele-ED are two services whose costs, at our current scale, without external support, are simply unsustainable. We have begun conversations about sunsetting these two services.”

“External funding for these telehealth programs that often serve rural critical access hospitals — but rarely reach the scale to account for the 24/7 staffing required — is often critically scarce yet is vital to maintaining these services,” the medical system said.

It’s not clear which hospitals used which of the two services, nor when exactly they would end.

Tele-health services were created make it possible for smaller, mostly rural hospitals to offer advanced services when they couldn’t afford to hire, or to keep, properly trained staff. They date back to the 1960s using closed-circuit television and have become much more prevalent in the 21st century due to the advent of fiber-optic connections and high-speed wireless networks, as well as efforts to reduce health-care costs.

Dartmouth Health was one of the leaders in the service in the New Hampshire and Vermont. Its Connected Care program launched in 2012.

In May, Dartmouth Health reported a $63.5 million operating deficit, the Valley News reported.