ORLANDO — After implementing a digital video telemedicine mannequin in Stanford Healthcare’s emergency division, sufferers have offered extra constructive suggestions relating to their expertise than the usual emergency division, stated audio system on the 2024 HIMSS World Well being Convention & Exhibition preconference Digital Care Discussion board on Monday.
“Our journey started with COVID,” stated Patrice Callagy, government director of emergency companies at Stanford Healthcare. “Although our emergency division had the flexibility to telehealth into our system, the nurse needed to be within the room to function that.”
Callagy and her colleague Sam Shen, medical professor and vice chair of medical operations and high quality within the division of emergency drugs, challenged their colleagues to develop a system the place suppliers may remotely talk with a affected person, and in per week’s time a brand new know-how was carried out.
“Telemedicine has been round for a very long time as a lot of you’re conscious, however COVID sort of offered a catalyst in permitting us to consider how we may leverage the know-how past simply COVID,” Shen stated.
Therefore, the Stage 1 trauma heart created a digital fast-track zone within the emergency division foyer, with carts outfitted with digital instruments. One doctor may nearly see quite a few sufferers within the emergency division space.
The crew additionally created an emergency division video-visit track-board within the EHR, which allowed physicians to see which sufferers had been within the queue after which carry out a telehealth go to with the affected person nearly.
“You may advance telemedicine in any avenue, however particularly inside emergency departments,” Callagy stated.
Earlier than digital visits, physicians would see one affected person at a time with longer wait intervals between affected person exams. After implementing a digital fast-track program, physicians can nearly cowl a number of low acuity sufferers within the pediatric ED, grownup ED and walk-in clinics.
The highest affected person points seen through the digital platform are sore throat, chest ache, cough, stomach ache, again ache, rash, knee ache, ear ache and foot ache.
Sufferers have offered constructive suggestions for emergency division digital care, with greater charges of satisfaction, even when in comparison with the well being system’s common emergency division.
The objective was to get the affected person to the physician sooner, which has been achieved via the digital mannequin, Callagy stated.
