Telemedicine intervention fails to reduce nursing home hospitalizations, study finds
Implementing an intersectoral, telemedicine-based intervention in nursing homes did not lead to a statistically significant reduction in patient hospitalizations, according to a prospective, multicenter cluster-randomized trial led by John Grosser, Sophie Pauge, Birthe Aufenberg and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Greiner from the Department of Health Economics and Health Care Management at Bielefeld…
A multi-pronged telemedicine intervention designed to curb hospitalizations in nursing homes proved ineffective, according to a new study. Led by researchers from Bielefeld University, the trial, published in JMIR Aging, found no statistically significant reduction in patient hospitalizations or care days despite the intervention's integration into 24 nursing homes across western Germany between 2021 and 2023.
The intervention comprised a 24/7 telemedical consultation center, mobile nonphysician medical assistants, a virtual emergency hub, and software-based early warning systems for vital signs. While some model variations suggested a trend toward reduced hospitalizations, none met the threshold for statistical significance (P < .05).
The authors identified several factors that likely undermined the intervention's success, including practical challenges, external events, staff workload, limited general practitioner integration, and insufficient adaptation periods. They concluded that future digital health efforts in long-term care should focus on specific, preventable admission metrics rather than overall hospitalization rates, and recommend simpler, more automated monitoring solutions like wearable devices, as well as deeper structural integration with general practitioners.
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