For more than fifteen years, Carle Foundation Hospital www.carle.org, an integrated, not-for-profit regional healthcare facility across east-central Illinois has relied on AMD Global Telemedicine www.amdtelemedicine.com to create and expand their successful patient-focused telemedicine program. Today, the use of AGNES software from AMD has resulted in telemedicine costing a fraction of the cost as compared to the cost required years ago.
So far, Carle’s successful use of the technology has led to more than 1,000 telemedicine consultations for inpatient and outpatient services at rural regional hospitals and has decreased the need to transfer patients from regional hospitals to Carle’s Urbana campus by using telemedicine inpatient consultations.
The list of telemedicine services now offered by Carle include, sleep medicine, pediatric behavioral health, infectious disease, cardiology, pediatric surgery, neonatology, and home health.
Carle and AMD working together has enabled patients who need follow-up endocrinology care to have appointments using telemedicine via a secure online connection from endocrinologist Owaise M.Y. Mansuri, MD at the hospital.
Jason Peoples, Carle’s Regional e-Health Coordinator, reports, “The Carle staff has been trained to efficiently coordinate care before beginning the consultation with Dr. Mansuri. To begin the process, a nurse or certified medical assistant takes the patient’s vitals and then the patient is able to interact face-to-face in real-time with Dr. Mansuri via a 42 inch high definition screen. Dr. Mansuri continues to travel to see patients if people wish to have an in-person follow-up visit.
In another case, a patient at the hospital needed to be cleared for surgery by her cardiologist. The cardiologist was able to connect with the patient via telemedicine, listen to her heart sounds using the AMD digital stethoscope and ensure that she was healthy enough to undergo the needed surgery.
Another Carle Cardiologist, Dr. Vikas Soma, points out that although he meets face-to-face with patients for their initial consultation, once the patient progresses and only needs follow-up visits, they have the option to have their visit via telemedicine.