Sacred Heart Health System in Florida has linked stroke specialists at its main hospital in Pensacola, Fla., to rural patients in Destin, Fla., through a camera and an Internet connection, the Pensacola News Journal reports.
The technology, which was developed by ReachMD Consult, can more quickly assess stroke patients and it can help determine whether a rural patient needs to be flown to Pensacola for more treatment.
Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola is the only hospital in the region with the ReachMD technology, and Sacred Heart officials hope to expand the technology to other rural hospitals in northwest Florida and southern Alabama, where there a large number of stroke cases, the News Journal reports.
West Florida Healthcare in March also plans to connect neuro critical care experts to the emergency department at West Florida, said Kendrick Doidge, vice president for marketing and public relations (Thrower, Pensacola News Journal, 1/25).
New York Hospital Wins Stroke Care Grant
Health care providers in New York state also are building telemedicine stroke programs. Bassett Healthcare in Cooperstown, N.Y., received a $977,586 grant from the New York State Health Foundation to provide neurologist services to rural hospital patients, the Oneonta Daily Star reports.
Bassett is one of two hospitals in New York with a telemedicine stroke program. The Bassett program will be implemented at O'Connor Hospital in Delhi, N.Y.; Cobleskill Regional Hospital; Little Falls Hospital; and will eventually go to a new hospital in Sidney, N.Y. (Ashbridge, Oneonta Daily Star, 1/25).