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Patient-Centered Cost Saving and Positive Environmental Impact With the Introduction of Telehealth Services at a Single Center.

Urology Practice 2024 October 2
OBJECTIVES: To establish the patient-specific cost and time savings associated with telemedicine with the secondary environmental benefits of virtual visits within a tertiary referral center sub-specialty urology clinic.

METHODS: An electronic health record query was made of all urology telehealth visits that have occurred between October 4, 2020 and October 10, 2020 at a single academic center. We evaluated the cost of travel for an in-person visit based on zip code data. To adjust for productivity loss, the cost of missed work was added as either full day or half day-based distance and average compensation per day based on zip code data. Environmental impact was calculated using average CO2 emissions per mile not traveled.

RESULTS: There were 6444 patients seen in the urology clinic via telehealth during the 6-month period. Urology patients traveled on average 69 ± 148 miles round-trip for an appointment. The average cost savings per patient including the cost of the gas and time away from work was $152.78 ± $105.90. Overall, over a 6-month period, the total cost savings was $984,534.73 for the 6444 patients seen via telemedicine. There was also a significant environmental impact of the decreased travel burden with 153.36 metric tons of CO2 emissions eliminated.

CONCLUSIONS: With the implementation of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic, patients have been able to save a substantial amount of time and money primarily driven by the decreasing work hours lost and cost of travel.

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