Application of a robot for critical care rounding in small rural hospitals.

The purpose of this article is to present an option for a model of care that allows small rural hospitals to be able to provide specialty physicians for critical care patient needs in lieu of on-site critical care physician coverage. A real-time, 2-way audio and video remote presence robot is used to bring a specialist to the bedside to interact with patients. This article discusses improvements in quality and finance outcomes as well as care team and patient satisfaction associated with this model.