TUH extends coverage for remote stroke treatment

Posted: Published on September 30th, 2014

This post was added by Dr Simmons

Teleconferencing for suspected strokes can provide earlier diagnoses.

by Kayla Oatneal 30 September 2014

Neurologists at Temple Hospital are now able to provide health care for a stroke at select hospitals within a 100-mile radius through their REACH Health Telemedicine Stroke Program, which is possible after the implementation of an advanced telemedicine cart.

The REACH Access Telemedicine Cart connects TUH neurologists to distant spoke hospitals and enables them to conduct full neurology exams, medical decision-making and treatment by video conferencing.

Its sort of like a high-resolution Skype, said Dr. Paul Katz, director of the TUH Stroke Program. The resolution of the video is such that I could zoom in and actually look at their pupils and then zoom out and look at their whole body. With the help of a nurse or another doctor at the distant facility, I could do a full neurological exam on this particular patient.

Each spoke hospital has a telemedicine cart in its emergency department. When an acute stroke patient is received at a spoke hospitals emergency department, Temples Transport Team and Comprehensive Communication Center are alerted and on-call neurologists at TUH are located.

TUH is currently in a negotiation period to develop a network with spoke hospitals. Episcopal Hospital will be the first spoke hospital to participate in the stroke care program. The program will cover hospitals within a 100-mile radius of TUH.

This hub-spoke relationship between TUH and other hospitals offers an advanced level of medical care to stroke patients at spoke hospitals that may not otherwise have access to the necessary components for a stroke diagnosis.

Temple is a certified stroke center, Katz said. There are hospitals in the community that either dont have access to a neurologist or dont have the capabilities of taking care of an acute stroke patient. If youre three hours away by car, youre never going to get to our hospital in time to receive treatment. By using telemedicine, I can assess them and decide whether they need treatment and can make recommendations.

In addition, the system allows teams from both hospitals to access one anothers medical and laboratory records as well as radiology imaging procedures like MRIs, CT scans and X-rays for further assessment and treatment.

Read more from the original source:
TUH extends coverage for remote stroke treatment

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