The use of telemedicine is expanding to long-term care settings, where frail patients are likely to have emergency care needs, and caregivers need quick assessments from outside medical professionals to enable them to intervene as soon as possible.
In rural America, or on urban evenings and weekends, the nurse may not be able to wait for a physician to return a call and begin the traditional intervention by visiting the patient in the facility. With frail patients, immediate observation of a patient can be crucial, and thus telemedicine can fill the void.
