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Case Study: Transport AV Global Media’s Unique Gurney-Mounted Telemedicine System
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center is nationally recognized as a leader in pediatric health care, with a reputation for excellence in patient care, research and medical education.
CCHMC’s faculty and staff of healthcare professionals and researchers specialize in pioneering breakthrough treatments, providing family-centered, innovative care and advanced treatment for their pediatric patients. Critically ill infants and children are transported to CCHMC from regional and rural hospitals and clinics to receive expert treatment from the renowned physicians and clinical service specialists at CCHMC’s state-of-the-art medical facilities.
The hospital’s motto is “Change the Outcome.” In keeping with their cutting edge philosophy, one way they are improving clinical outcomes today is by utilizing the latest in mobile telemedicine to help pediatric patients in transit to CCHMC facilities. Telemedicine enables physicians to connect directly with patients in remote locations; mobile telemedicine takes it one step further, linking patients and critical care transport teams in traveling ambulances directly with the doctors at the hospital.
Dr. Hamilton Schwartz is a Board-certified emergency room pediatric practitioner. He is also the Medical Director of Statline - a division of the CCHMC EmergencyDepartment which serves as the hospital’s interface with Emergency Medical Service providers and ambulance transport teams. Before mobile telemedicine, he was frequently frustrated by the challenges of directing critical care teams transporting sick and injured children to the CCHMC emergency room, intensive care, or specialty care facilities.
“In the past, we had to rely on verbal descriptions over the phone from the teams, and it can be very difficult to communicate the nuances of a physical situation or condition in words,” explained Dr. Schwartz. “For example, in pediatrics, it’s critical to see the patient’s skin color. Different shades of grey coloration can mean not enough blood flow, or different shades of blue can denote the severity of oxygen deprivation. But describing shades of colors precisely is hard, leaving room for interpretation. It’s much easier and faster to diagnose when you can see for yourself.”
The Solution: Transport AV Mobile Telemedicine
Dr. Schwartz wanted his critical care transport teams to be able to provide top quality care from the moment of pick-up until the patient is physically in the same room with the doctor. He chose telemedicine system pioneer GlobalMedia to implement an in-transit mobile telemedicine solution.
The GlobalMedia Transport AV telemedicine system combines the TotalExam examination camera, a handheld, high-resolution video camera about the size of a dry-erase marker, and a digital stethoscope, microphone and headset, all connected via the Internet from the ambulance to CCHMC. Transport teams use the TotalExam camera to send real-time, live video and freeze-frame images of the patient to the doctors back at CCHMC.
The TotalExam camera is lightweight and easy to use, even in the cramped inside space of a moving ambulance. It lets the transport teams send whole body images and zoom in for close-up images of a patient’s ski, throat, eyes or wounds, burns, rashes and real-time systemic reactions to in-transit treatments. The stethoscope allows the doctor to hear heartbeat and respiration firsthand. Hands-free headphones and microphone keep transport teams in constant communication with CCHMC.
The Transport AV system attaches to the gurney in the ambulance and can travel with the patient all the way into the ER or examination room. This gives doctors uninterrupted contact with the patient, enabling continuous monitoring and critical care delivery.
“With mobile telemedicine, we can now interact with the ambulance crews to customize critical care for each individual patient from the minute the patient is transferred into their care,” commented Dr. Schwartz. “We can immediately diagnose and begin critical care treatment, and we can monitor the patient’s condition and reactions to treatment through the transport.”
Knowing exactly what the patient’s condition is at all times not only improves care during transport, but also provides vital information to the medical teams at CCHMC, so they can prepare the ER or appropriate treatment room or facility to ensure that the right equipment, specialists and medications are ready to go, the instant the patient arrives.
More Efficient Critical Care, Less Trauma for Families and Safer Ambulance Rides
The Transport AV system also enables doctors at CCHMC to quickly determine if a child en route is sicker than originally thought, or not as sick as he might have first appeared. This offers several benefits to the hospital as well as to the patients and their families.
For sicker children, the mobile telemedicine enables the physicians waiting at CCHMC to adapt treatment on the fly to address the situation, instead of waiting until the patient arrives and can be examined. In other situations, especially if the patient’s condition isn’t dire, the doctor may determine that the patient can bypass the emergency room entirely.
In many cases, the doctor can even process admission paperwork while the child is still in transit, so a hospital room is ready and waiting when the patient is brought in.
This spares the patient, and the family, the stress of the ER and long waits for treatment to begin. It also saves the hospital’s manpower and frees ER staff and equipment to focus on more critical emergencies.
“One surprise benefit we didn’t expect was safer ambulance rides,” added Dr. Schwartz. “Speeding ambulances are at huge risk for accidents. With our mobile telemedicine system, doctors can now quickly determine how critical a patient’s condition is as soon as the transport team makes the pickup. If the situation isn’t life-threatening, the ambulance can slow down to significantly decrease the chance of an accident.”
GlobalMedia’s Transport AV mobile telemedicine solution is breaking new ground in critical care delivery. Dr. Schwartz and his critical care transport teams have fully integrated this mobile telemedicine technology into their life-saving care for critically ill children. Mobile telemedicine is now helping them to positively “Change the Outcome” every day. |
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