Table 1.

Parameters Used in the Economic Evaluation of Telemedicine Consultations for Children Presenting to Rural Emergency Departments (EDs)

Parameter	Point Estimatea	Distribution	Distribution Parameters
Transfer rateb
Telephone consultations
Baseline transfer rate (P_t_ph)	88%	Beta	n = 64, α = 56, β = 8c
Transfer rate with air ambulance (P_a_ph)	45%	Beta	n = 56, α = 25, β = 31
To tertiary hospital (P_at_ph)	80%	Beta	n = 25, α = 20, β = 5
Transfer rate with ground ambulance to tertiary hospital (P_gt_ph)	58%	Beta	n = 31, α = 18, β = 13
Admission rate to rural hospital (P_ad_ph)	50%	Beta	n = 8, α = 4, β = 4
Telemedicine consultations
Telemedicine transfer rate (P_t_tele)	61%	Beta	n = 71, α = 43, β = 28
Transfer rate with air ambulance (P_a_tele)	46%	Beta	n = 43, α = 20, β = 23
To tertiary hospital (P_at_tele)	85%	Beta	n = 20, α = 17, β = 3
Transfer rate with ground ambulance to tertiary hospital (P_gt_tele)	87%	Beta	n = 23, α = 20, β = 3
Admission rate to rural hospital (P_ad_tele)	25%	Beta	n = 28, α = 7, β = 21
Transfer reduction rate	31%	Not applicable	Not applicable
Costd
Telemedicine operational cost per child/ED/yeare	$3641	Gamma	$5193 (SD)
ED visit costf	$1237	Gamma	$912 (SD)
Transportation costg
Air ambulance	$18,872	Gamma	α = 1, λ= 1/18,872h
Ground ambulance	$2555	Gamma	α = 1, λ = 1/2555h
Hospital treatment cost per child/hospitalization/yeari
Rural hospital	$6369	Gamma	$5918 (SD)
Community hospital	$7256	Gamma	$17,443 (SD)
Tertiary hospital	$16,422	Gamma	$39,647 (SD)

^a.Used in both base-case and probabilistic analyses.

^b.Derived from the Pediatric Critical Care Telemedicine Program.

^c.α = r, β = n − r, where r represents the number of successes and n represents the number of trials.

^d.2013 US dollar value.

^e.Defined as [cost of telemedicine equipment and maintenance/ED/year ($3004) + cost of technical support/ED/year ($2675)] / # of patients receiving telemedicine consultations/ED/year. Derived from the Pediatric Critical Care Telemedicine Program.

^f.Derived from the State Inpatient Database.

^g.Derived from the previously published literature.¹⁸

^h.Derived from the previously published book.²⁶

^i.Derived from the Kids’ Inpatient Database.