patients could be referred to the teams by general medical practitioners or after assessment by the local authority for support for social care needs the study found that the intermediate care group had a higher number of unscheduled admissions into hospital and the integrated care group showed no difference both interventions led to higher rates of mortality than what is seen in their matched control groups the authors found that over a sixmonth period the costs were greater for the virtual outreach consultations than for conventional outpatient appointments the equipment used which might be expected to have reduced costs over time only accounted for some of this greater cost with increased consultant and general practitioner time accounting for the rest