TeleSpecialists partners with New Hanover Medical Center
Consults Go Smoothly on First Day of Teleneurology Program
The first day of a new video conferencing program designed to solidify and strengthen after-hours consults for neurology patients included three successful patient consults, one of which started just as the program went live.
TeleSpecialist, a team of board-certified specialists based in Fort Myers, Fla., is providing the consults through its teleneurology program for patient consults and treatments from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m., seven days a week.
The first call was a Code Stroke and came at 5 p.m. Monday, just when the program was scheduled to go live. The teleneurologist worked with the stroke team, assessed the patient and spoke with the family and EMS. The teleneurologist documented in our Epic medical record, and the patient received tPA within 44 minutes of the patients arrival in the ED at NHRMC.
Later a patient in the Cardiac Care Unit was connected to the program, and after that another patient with possible stroke symptoms was connected in the NHRMC ED. All three patients are doing well.
For the first week of the program, local neurologists are backing up the teleneurology service, as standard work and processes continue to develop. One practice that has been validated is that if a nurse needs to speak with a neurologist from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m., the nurse should call the Regional Transfer Center (815-5155) to begin the process of connecting with the teleneurologist.