Raymond Hino, president and  chief executive of the Sonoma West Medical Center, in California, writes about how to cut hospital readmissions, improve care, reduce costs and improve reimbursements through introducing hospital-nursing facility collaboration via telemedicine.

He told Hospital Impact: “Through my experience as a hospital CEO, I have seen our hospitals benefit {from telemedicine} through coverage in a variety of applications, including intensive care unit and hospitalist coverage and specialty consults in both inpatient and outpatient clinic settings. I have seen ICUs that have reopened after the introduction of telemedicine and remote presence physician coverage of the units. In short, telemedicine has proven itself as a revenue-producing service for our hospitals.”