Recipe for Telemedicine Success

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (January 29, 2010) — Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) 19, also known as the Rocky Mountain Network, is headquartered in Denver, Colorado, and is geographically the largest of the 21 VISNs in the lower 48 states. The VA Rocky Mountain Network’s geographic area spans over 470,000 square miles across nine states, covering Colorado, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, and portions of Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada and North Dakota. The VA Rocky Mountain Network honors America’s veterans by providing exceptional healthcare to more than 700,000 veterans residing within VISN 19’s geographic boundaries.

VISN 19 will soon be operating more than 57 clinical facilities, including six medical centers, outpatient clinics, nursing homes, and residential rehabilitation treatment programs. In addition to providing health care to veterans, VISN 19 also provides training for health care professionals, conducts medical research, serves as a contingency backup to U.S. Dept. of Defense medical services, and, during national emergencies, supports the National Disaster Medical System.

The challenge: delivering healthcare to so many over such a wide area
Delivering quality healthcare to so many veterans scattered across such a large geographic area presents a formidable challenge. Even with so many facilities, patients in remote rural and underserved areas often had to travel hundreds of miles to be seen by VA doctors and receive required medical treatment. Many who couldn’t afford the travel expense often had to go without.

To extend healthcare services to more veterans, VISN 19 was an early pioneer in utilizing telehealth tools and equipment, starting with the very first early telehealth technologies more than a decade ago. Telehealth technologies allow doctors to make a diagnosis, prescribe and direct the administration of treatment for patients from remote locations using medical imaging devices via the internet.

Over the past few years VISN 19 has begun establishing Primary Care Telehealth Outreach Clinics (PCTOC) as part of an outreach initiative to increase access to VA primary care, including both medical and mental health care, as well as patient education, across their vast coverage area. The clinics are staffed by VA Registered Nurses and Clinical Telehealth Technicians trained in the use of onsite telehealth systems.

Extending outreach with telehealth solutions
The VA has been a leader in using technology. Telehealth has become a vital component in providing healthcare services to the many veterans. VA networks have come to rely on telehealth to leverage the available clinical care providers to the fullest extent in order to extend access to both primary and specialty care to patients. But it’s less about the technology itself and more about the people connection it enables, in order to provide safe, quality healthcare. In its search for integratable technologies that equally address both the patient and the physician’s needs, the VA found GlobalMed.

During the past year, VISN 19 dramatically expanded its telehealth program and they are now in the process of another expansion, using GlobalMed’s Transportable Exam Stations. The exam stations, or “carts”, have been customized to meet VA specific needs, integrating TotalExam video and static image cameras, full-screen HD capable video monitors, digital stethoscopes that transmit heart and respiratory sounds, onboard computers and battery units with full back-up. HIPAA compliant video conferencing software ensures secure transmission of patient information.

GlobalMed’s solutions caught the eye of the VA because they were flexible and adaptable, with a variety of options we could choose from to build the optimum solution. GlobalMed’s design team was extremely responsive to their needs. The company takes pride in their commitments and consistently delivers what it promises. The VA is now enjoying great success with GlobalMed’s mobile video exam carts because they enable the real time people connection the world’s largest healthcare system needs between patients and doctors no matter where each one is physically located. They’ve found GlobalMed carts easily adapt to any clinical situation.

The VISN 19 telehealth teams also praise the carts’ design and construction. “The carts are well designed, reflecting a good understanding of real world hospital and healthcare facility environments. For example, they have five wheels instead of the usual four, which gives them better stability and more traction on ramps, going in and out of elevators, etc. Plus they’re adjustable, ergonomic and easy to use.”

The computers on the carts give the nurses and Clinical Telehealth Technicians immediate access to the patients’ medical records. The video conference and other peripherals are integrated with the computers, so patient data can be captured automatically during examinations and treatment, keeping the electronic medical records constantly up to date.

VA medical teams especially like both the live video conferencing and ‘store and forward’ features. The live video lets the caregivers with the patient send real time video feeds of the patient to the doctors, enabling the doctors to remotely direct the examination and observe the patient’s reactions during treatment. The camera can zoom in to allow close inspection of wounds, burns, dermatology conditions, or examine specific body parts at close range. The store and forward feature captures static images and forwards them to the computer, where they’re captured in the medical record through the VA’s VistA imaging technology.

Serving the soldiers who serve our country
VISN 19 was able to double the number of veterans served last year. Utilizing the GlobalMed mobile video carts and telehealth peripheral devices, they expect to increase that by at least another 25% in the next twelve months.

Being able to cost-effectively increase access to quality healthcare services to a broader range of veterans is especially timely for the VA now. Enrollments are up due to the large number of vets returning from the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The VA is seeing a significant increase in poly-trauma cases and traumatic head and brain injuries in the returning veterans. Its mission is to provide the veterans who so bravely served our country with the best possible care when they come home and need help. The telehealth program is fundamental to enabling the VA to rise to the challenge, especially in caring for poly-trauma patients.

Poly-trauma care is for veterans and returning service members with injuries to more than one physical region or organ system, such as head trauma and limb amputation. Whether any of the injuries are life threatening, poly-trauma puts the patient at risk for physical, cognitive or psychological impairments or functional disability. Poly-trauma cases typically require multidisciplinary clinical care.

The GlobalMed mobile video carts allow VISN 19 to tap into a pool of highly skilled medical specialists throughout the VISN 19 system, and across the entire country, to provide the most comprehensive and effective multidisciplinary care to veteran patients. One telehealth medical team with a GlobalMed video cart at the patient’s bedside can link up real-time with any number of top notch specialists at a variety of locations in the VISN and throughout the VHA system, for the highest level of systemic screening and real time group consultation on treatment.

The GlobalMed telehealth system enables the VA Rocky Mountain Network to provide the best, most comprehensive, high-quality and inter-disciplinary care to patients. Teams of physicians from every relevant field can plan and administer an individually tailored treatment regimen and rehabilitation plan to help VA patients recover as much and as rapidly as possible.

The GlobalMed mobile video carts are integral to the VA’s telehealth system. It can now deliver much needed medical care directly to patients wherever they are in our vast geographic coverage area, from the convenience of their closest local facility.