Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019:23:18-294.
doi: 10.7812/TPP/18.294. Epub 2019 Aug 29.

Legal Perspectives on Telemedicine Part 2: Telemedicine in the Intensive Care Unit and Medicolegal Risk

Christian D Becker  1   2   3 , Katherine Dandy  4 , Max Gaujean  4 , Mario Fusaro  1   2   3 , Corey Scurlock  1   5   6
Affiliations

Legal Perspectives on Telemedicine Part 2: Telemedicine in the Intensive Care Unit and Medicolegal Risk

Christian D Becker et al. Perm J. 2019.

Abstract

Tele-intensive care unit (tele-ICU) implementation has been shown to improve clinical and financial outcomes. The expansion of this new care delivery model has outpaced the development of its accompanying regulatory framework. In the first part of this commentary we discussed legal and regulatory issues of telemedicine in general and expanded on tele-ICU implementation in particular. Major legal and regulatory barriers to expansion remain, including uncertainty regarding license portability and reimbursement. In this second part we discuss the effects of telemedicine implementation on the various aspects of medicolegal risk and risk mitigation, with a particular focus on tele-ICU. There is a paucity of legal data regarding the effect of tele-ICU implementation on medicolegal risk. We will therefore systematically discuss the effects of tele-ICU on the various root causes of medical error. Given the substantial capital and operational investment that must be undertaken to build and run a tele-ICU, any reduction in risk adds to the financial return on investment and further decreases barriers to implementation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure Statement

The author(s) have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Yoo BK, Kim M, Sasaki T, Hoch JS, Marcin JP. Selected use of telemedicine in intensive care units based on severity of illness improves cost-effectiveness. Telemed J E Health. 2018 Jan;24(1):21–36. doi: 10.1089/tmj.2017.0069. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Lilly CM, Motzkus C, Rincon T, et al. ICU telemedicine program financial outcomes. Chest. 2017 Feb;151(2):286–97. doi: 10.1016/j.chest.2016.11.029. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Wilcox ME, Adhikari NK. The effect of telemedicine in critically ill patients: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Crit Care. 2012 Jul 18;16(4):R127. doi: 10.1186/cc11429. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Young LB, Chan PS, Lu X, Nallamothu BK, Sasson C, Cram PM. Impact of telemedicine intensive care unit coverage on patient outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Arch Intern Med. 2011 Mar 28;171(6):498–506. doi: 10.1001/archinternmed.2011.61. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Lilly CM, Zubrow MT, Kempner KM, et al. Society of Critical Care Medicine Tele-ICU Committee. Critical care telemedicine: Evolution and state of the art. Crit Care Med. 2014 Nov;42(11):2429–36. doi: 10.1097/CCM.0000000000000539. Erratum in: Critical care telemedicine: Evolution and state of the art: Erratum. Crit Care Med 2015 Feb;43(2):e64. - DOI - PubMed

MeSH terms