Connecting patients directly to top specialists at home is the idea behind telemedicine.
St. Mary's Hospital in Jefferson City began a new partnership to provide telemedicine Monday with SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital, SSM Health DePaul Hospital in St. Louis and SSM Health St. Clare Hospital in Fenton.
Hospital officials said telemedicine brings the expertise of specialists from partner hospitals directly into the St. Mary's emergency department, birthing center and pediatrics clinic.
Cardinal Glennon has used telemedicine the last couple of years, connecting with hospitals in Missouri and Illinois and some clinics in nearby areas. It is used to deliver inpatient and outpatient care, educate physicians and patients, and even conduct medical research via electronic communications in real time. Beginning in August, they piloted their telemedicine program to include SSM Pediatrics Clinic, allowing the same specialists and families to continue consultations without waiting or traveling long distances.
St. Mary's Hospital officials showed off their two machines - "robots" known as "Gracie and "Little Gracie" - which will allow an out-of-town specialist to see and hear results in real time. The specialist's face appeared on a screen as part of the "robot," allowing him to see his patient and talk to St. Mary's staff and vice versa via a camera and Wi-Fi connection.
Before a telemedicine machine comes into the room, a nurse takes a patient's vital signs with a Bluetooth stethoscope, asks about medications, etc. Then a message is sent to the doctor to let him or her know their staff is ready for the telemedicine consultation.
Telemedicine visits are primarily for pulmonology follow-up consultations for children with issues such as chronic asthma or pulmonary disease. However, they plan to expand those services to include gastrointestinal, dermatology and cardiology in the future.
Dr. Theodore Willmore, head of the emergency department at St. Mary's, said currently when a patient is in the ER consultants are called to describe an immediate issue over the phone.
"This technology allows us to interact and get that second opinion and have visualization of the patient," he said. "It is not a phone call. They have X-rays, labs, can hear and see what we hear. The only limitation (for the specialist or linked-in doctor) is they can't physically reach out and touch the patient, but they have real-time access."
Michael Hyde, director of emergency and interventional services at SSM Health of Mid-Missouri, said ER physicians see a higher volume of critical patients, and telemedicine will allow an expert to be in the room to help decide if they need help getting the patient the immediate medical help he or she needs.
"It's the same as having a footprint of a human doctor in the room with our staff," Hyde said.
That presence is also important in keeping the family together, particularly for mothers and their newborn babies. Leslie Charlton, manager at St. Mary's Family Birth Center, said babies often can be sent to Columbia or St. Louis for additional treatment or to be seen by a specialist. The use of telemedicine will add another tool for physicians and nurses to use in taking care of sicker babies who can't travel.
SSM Health also plans to add lactation consultations via telemedicine in the near future. Jessica Royston, marketing and communications manager for SSM Health Mid-Missouri, said the health system already offers lactation consults as a free service to all mothers who deliver there.
"We have a certified lactation consultant on staff, and she will be able to do these with this new technology so that moms don't have to travel to the hospital to meet with her," she said. "They can do it in the comfort of their home. This is especially helpful for moms who don't live very close to the hospital but are having issues breastfeeding."
The importance of telehealth in the ER, at the Family Birth Center or at the pediatrics clinic is to allow patients to see a specialist without traveling a long distance and ultimately to improve a patient's clinical health status more immediately.
For more information about telemedicine, visit ssmhealth.com/cardinal-glennon/pediatric-telemedicine. For more information about SSM Health Mid-Missouri, visit ssmhealthmidmo.com.