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Swedish Health Services is located in the Pacific Northwest, in Seattle, Washington.
We've been in existence for over one hundred years in the community. Swedish TeleHealth
Services really tries to focus on being able to leverage technology to bring care to the
local communities. Many patients aren't able to make the journey into the city or they
don't have a specialty care available in their local communities. So with the use of TeleHealth
and TeleMedicine programs we're able to bring these services to their local communities
and to deliver care they wouldn't otherwise have access to. Swedish has its roots in TeleHealth
dating back to 2004; the inception of our TeleICU program. Moving beyond TeleICU, we
developed TeleStroke to be able to treat the acute stroke patients. And beyond TeleStroke
we expanded that service into numerous TeleHealth programs to now have over 30 different programs
within our TeleHealth department. All of these programs utilize the telepresenter role to
facilitate the physician exam as well as using peripheral devices.
The role of the telepresenter is really important. At the remote setting they can be the physician's
hands extended.
What we do is, we go into a patient's room that's newly admitted to the hospital and
do an assessment on that patient; using digital equipment, using a computer. And the doctor
is actually on the other side of that computer can see everything that we're doing. Some
of the peripherals we use to facilitate the exam are a stethoscope, which is really one
of my favorite pieces of equipment. It's Blue Tooth, so I hook it up using the computer
program and the doctor hooks it up on his side. And then he can hear everything I'm
hearing on the patient. Heart sounds, lung sounds, bowel tones. And it's amazing. And
then of course we have the otoscope that looks in their ears. And ophthalmoscope for your
eyes. This has been a very unique opportunity for my nursing career because it has really
allowed me to use my assessment skills. And I really enjoy assessing patients.
My experience working with the technology has been excellent. It allows us to reach
a patient remotely anywhere. You can be anywhere assisting a colleague downtown, on a different
campus or doing something else. It allows us to immediately reach the patient, listen
to their concerns, make a diagnosis and initiate their treatment a lot faster than if we were
driving around town to come to see them. Patients seem to like TeleHealth. Initially they're
a little skeptical because obviously their not used to a physician walking up to a computer
screen. But after I introduce myself and explain what we're doing and the benefits of doing
things this way, they seem to be receptive. And in fact, we had really good outcomes on
our post admission, post treatment survey. We have demonstrated with TeleHealth that
we equal or actually improve on length of stay compared to regular bedside evaluations.
I think this has to do with the fact that we can make a diagnosis a little earlier and
we can start treatment right away.
I was about a mile and a half from the ferry and I lost the vision in my right eye. And
it was acute. I mean it happened within a fraction of a second. And I knew the only
chance I had to get vision back was to get to the hospital and get into the stroke program.
That was my introduction to actually being in the program. Being a hospital commissioner,
I had looked at this program actually probably two years prior to that and I pushed real
hard for us to be a part of this program. I thought it was very important for the community
to have the availability of this mode of therapy for our general patient population; never
thinking I would be a participant in the program itself. My personal experience with the TeleHealth
system was very positive. And the things I didn't realize, not being in the system, was
how rapidly it worked. The most amazing thing was, you go to a neurologist's office, you're
lucky to see him in two hours. I saw him in under two minutes. I was examined by him and
a therapeutic regimen was determined within I think within five or six minutes. I mean
it was absolutely amazing.
We've expanded our TeleStroke programs beyond the Seattle region, expanding outside the
walls of Swedish. We have a number of external partners that have utilized the same technology
in their communities.
TeleHealth is one of those things that's integral and we think it's a game changer, for how
you manage healthcare over large organizations. Swedish and Providence came together and we're
collaborating on a whole host of things together. One of them is what we call Expert-to-Expert,
bringing experts together, a solution to collaborate across state lines, to collaborate across
different parts of the country and in rural areas; and with institutions that are independent
from either Swedish or Providence. There really are not any boundaries. And where the world
is going -- I want it now, I want it right here, I want it on my phone. I want it if
I'm traveling in Africa; I want to be in a clinic in Africa or in South America - it's
got to be everywhere. The only way you can do this is through TeleHealth.
TeleHealth has really expanded based on technological advances. The advancements that have occurred
in regards to billing and reimbursement, as well as physician licensure and credentialing,
have also helped to remove the barriers to TeleHealth adoption. In the future for TeleHealth
here at Swedish, the opportunities really are endless. We want to be able to have the
individual who wants to sit at their desk, sit at their home computer to be able to log
in, schedule that appointment with the provider they want to interact with that day and time
and be able to readily have access to be able to communicate with their provider. So TeleHealth
can be utilized beyond the hospital and clinic environment. For example, on a cruise ship
a vacationer may have an acute heart attack and may not know if it's actually a heart
attack or if it's just angina or for that matter indigestion. Through the use of TeleHealth
you can utilize the access to the specialist, such as a cardiologist to be able to quickly
and in real time determine how to triage that patient. The future of TeleHealth at Swedish
is exciting. The opportunities that we have available to advance TeleMedicine are endless.