An economic analysis of teleradiology versus a visiting radiologist service.

An economic analysis of the teleradiology service provided by a university hospital to a local hospital without radiologists was carried out. The average workload at the local hospital was 6000 patients (8000 examinations) per year. In these circumstances teleradiology cost NKr108 per patient, in comparison with NKr178 per patient for the visiting radiologist service which had previously been provided. The total cost of the teleradiology service amounted to NKr646,900 per year; in comparison the visiting radiologist service cost NKr1,069,000 per year. Calculations showed that for teleradiology to be cheaper, the workload had to exceed 1576 patients per year. A sensitivity analysis showed that assuming a shorter equipment lifetime, for instance four years rather than six years, made the threshold value 2320 patients per year instead of 1576.