Building the Evidence Base for Tele-Emergency Care: Efforts to Identify a Standardized Set of Outcome Measures.

Background: To enhance the quality of emergency department (ED) care, some rural hospitals have adopted the use of telemedicine (tele-ED). Without a common set of metrics, it is difficult to quantify the impact of this technology.

Introduction: To address this limitation, the Health Resources and Services Administration funded the identification and testing of a core set of measures that could be used to build a business case for the value of tele-ED care.