More facts on what trips to the larger medical centers that saved $6.6M is needed to see why decisions were made. As a teleconferencing designer and installer I am leery of using products like webcams to diagnose all patients. It is a two dimensional, low quality product that cannot catch a full picture of what is going on in real time. If the purpose is just to give a visual image to supplement the on site diagnostic equipment then is has it's limited uses. I have installed numerous teleconferencing systems in several medical facilities and have found that most practitioners won't use it even for minor cases. This may be more of an inconvenience issue than a technology one. But I have found that a true high definition system can be a great use in consultative medicine arenas and not as a substitute for a trained professional on site.
Bottom line is that it needs to be designed for not only high quality but a recognized supplement to the local medical center capabilities. I also would not feel comfortable knowing that Skype was the preferred video source to diagnose my condition.
Small-town living certainly has its perks, but one that isn’t always among them is preparedness for a wide variety of medical emergencies.
In many rural areas, there is only one doctor, who is often a general practitioner, on call for trips to the emergency room. This can spell trouble for patients stricken by heart attacks or hurt in car accidents who are subsequently forced to travel hundreds of miles to the nearest big city hospital.
To solve this problem, communities all over rural South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wyoming and Nebraska are sending their critically injured patients to a somewhat virtual hospital. The Avera Health Network, a nonprofit that offers a wide range of “telemedical” services, has experts on call 24-hours a day to diagnose patients via Skype and video chat.
Based at Avera McKennan Hospital in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the virtual hospital is set up to provide support to doctors serving rural areas across the United States. While the doctors at Avera monitor ICU patients via Skype, the patients themselves are surrounded by nurses and pharmacists, ensuring the long-distance physicians aren’t missing anything vital.
The Atlantic reports:
The Avera team calls this “hands in pocket doctoring.” Of course, physical hands are needed to carry out virtual orders, and real doctors and nurses are always on hand to provide that. But even IRL (in real life), crisis situations require someone at the head of the room, keeping tabs on everyone and calling the shots. In emergency situations, where every second counts, the long-distance physician is able to be in the room an average of 14 minutes sooner than the local doctor.
Working together, the long-distance docs and local nurses and pharmacists have seen an 18 percent decrease in ambulance and helicopter transfers to bigger hospitals, saving a total of $6.6 million.
“The magic is being able to see into room,” Jay Weems, executive director of one of the virtual services told The Atlantic. “But the bigger magic, we think, is the people are on both ends — in the rural community and in the hub — that support each other and work together as team, as medicine is meant to be practiced.”
Image: Alex Proimos/Flickr
[via The Atlantic]
