CONFERA partners with Physicians Insurance for its liability coverage and is pleased that Physicians Insurance supports innovations in health care that promote cost-effectiveness, excellence in care, and patient safety.
As hospitals and physicians grapple with rising costs, declining reimbursement, and increasingly limited access to specialty care, CONFERA, an independent physician group, is partnering with hospitals and medical staffs to confront these challenges. CONFERA provides specialized medical expertise to patients via telemedicine, augmenting the care provided by local physicians.Through the use of an on-site robot, or similar equipment, a CONFERA hospitalist beams into the hospital and allows for high-quality, real-time patient-physician interactions through high-resolution video, audio, and medical peripherals. The hospitalist can see and talk with the patient, observe and conduct an assessment, view radiologic images, review lab results, and collaborate with the medical team to develop the most appropriate treatment plan for the patient. This allows patients the comfort of being cared for in their own community—near friends and family—by the primary care providers who know them best, while benefitting from a team of specialty physicians collaborating on their care.
“Patients appreciate staying close to their family under the care of their local primary care physician,” says Tom Martin, Lincoln Hospital administrator in Davenport, Washington. “Our physicians benefit from having the additional medical expertise at their side.”
Fred Reed, MD, Lincoln Hospital’s chief of medical staff, also sees the value of telemedicine: “Having the robot available to us and specialists behind it really enables us to get a fresh viewpoint and another set of eyes on the patient.”