Telemonitoring bei Herzinsuffizienzpatienten als Leistung eines Krankenhauses : eine Wirtschaftlichkeitsrechnung aus Sicht der Universitätsmedizin Greifswald Hospitals play a major role in research projects on telemonitoring in patients with heart failure. Although the knowledge of its microeconomic consequences present a prerequisite for a sustainable implementation of the service beyond research projects as well as for negotiations on reimbursements this has not been in the focus of scientific interest so far. It therefore is the aim to weigh costs and effects caused by telemonitoring of patients with heart failure from the perspective of a university hospital in a rural area. The interventional costs were determined. Changes in the parameters number of cases length of hospital stay and number of fused cases due to early rehospitalisation were quantified and monetarily assessed. Differences between intervention and control group from a prospective randomised and controlled study were taken to quantify the effects. The results of the economic calculation were tested in deterministic sensitivity analyses. Given the current frame conditions and the assumptions made in this calculation the effects resulting from overseeing patients with heart failure via telemonitoring do not outbalance the costs of the intervention. Although the result appeared to be stable in most of the scenarios tested in the sensitivity analyses there might be other reasons that should be taken into account when deciding on whether or not to provide this service. Herzinsuffizienz Telemedizin Krankenhaus Wirtschaftlichkeitsrechnung Ländlicher Raum Telemonitoring heart failure hospital economic evaluation rural area