An economic and health outcome evaluation of telehealth in rural sepsis care: a comparative effectiveness study.

Sepsis is a top contributor to in-hospital mortality and, healthcare expenditures and telehealth have been shown to improve short-term sepsis care in rural hospitals. This study will evaluate the effect of provider-to-provider video telehealth in rural emergency departments (EDs) on healthcare costs and long-term outcomes for sepsis patients. We will use Medicare administrative claims to compare total healthcare expenditures, mortality, length-of-stay, readmissions, and category-specific costs between telehealth-subscribing and control hospitals. The results of this work will demonstrate the extent to which telehealth use is associated with total healthcare expenditures for sepsis care. These findings will be important to inform future policy initiatives to improve sepsis care in rural EDs. Clinical Trial Registration: NCT05072145 (ClinicalTrials.gov).