Telemedicine consults may reduce errors at rural ERs

When emergency rooms in rural areas see very sick or badly injured children, bringing in a pediatric critical care specialist by videoconference to help with treatment could prevent errors, a new study suggests. Researchers found rural ER physicians made medication errors—such as giving the wrong drug or the wrong dose—just 3% of the time when they used telemedicine to connect with a specialist. That compared to an 11% error rate when local doctors talked with a specialist by phone and a 13% error rate when they didn’t consult with a specialist at all.