Telehealth Platform Delivers Care in the Community for Rural Patients

CHALLENGE

Hospitals, like Patterson Health Center, face additional challenges in providing patient access to specialty providers not typically found at smaller facilities. That challenge extends to hospitalist medicine, the fast-growing specialty that provides inpatient primary care to a hospitalized patient from admission through discharge. For this 16-bed CAH the need for a telehealth platform and hospitalist coverage are met through the Eagle Telemedicine service.

SOLUTION: TELEHEALTH PLATFORM

Created specifically for in-patient settings, the Eagle telehealth platform leverages nursing staff within the hospital for hands-on attention as an Eagle TeleHospitalist working off-site delivers clinical decision-making, directing a robotic camera and interacting with nurse and patient via two way audio and video. Patients get the expert care they need, when they need it, and smaller hospitals gain access to physician resources they cannot effectively recruit or fund full-time.

“The skilled providers at Patterson Health Center do an excellent job of meeting the bulk of their patients’ healthcare needs, yet sometimes need immediate assistance,” said Eagle telehospitalist Brian Hunt, MD. “With the Eagle Telehospitalist system, I can be ‘beamed into’ a patient room within minutes. In addition to providing staffing flexibility, we’ve helped patients who would otherwise require transport receive the specialist attention they need while remaining in the community they call home.”