Bear Lake Memorial Hospital in launching a new service by contracting with Intermountain Healthcare to provide an extra level of support to critically ill patients in BLMH’s Intensive Care Units. With the implementation of TeleHealth Technology, a secure interactive audio and video system, critical care patients and their caregivers now have 24/7 support from the Critical Care TeleHealth Center located at Intermountain’s Supply Chain Center in Midvale, Utah.
Experienced critical care doctors and nurses serve as a second set of eyes, supporting local physicians and nurses to proactively round on, and monitor the vital signs and data of, critically ill patients. This program also allows BLMH’s staff to consult with critical care specialists through cameras and audio links in both ICU rooms, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Dr. Bill Beninati, the Medical Director of Intermountain’s Critical Care TeleHealth Program states, “We work directly with the bedside medical team to determine the appropriate course of action for each patient, serve as real-time clinical decision support, ensure best practices and consistency of care in a high-stress environment, and provide a safety net for bedside staff and patients. If a patient needs to be transferred, we’ll work with your doctors and nurses to help prepare the patient for the smoothest transfer possible.”
This service has been implemented in other rural hospitals and will add no additional costs to those being cared for in the hospital’s ICUs. TeleHealth will help avoid the inconvenience and high costs of emergency transfers while providing direct access to the big-city specialists.
BLMH CEO Rod Jacobson adds, “We want the community to know we are capable of caring for them and their loved ones at all levels and I feel the new service will increase our abilities to be the Most Caring Hospital on Earth.”
The TeleHealth system is set to go live on Thursday, June 2, 2016. The first post-surgery ICU patient is scheduled for mid-June. Bear Lake Memorial Hospital and its staff are looking forward to utilizing this critical care service for all of their ICU patients.