By Jaime Hayes
In a healthcare landscape that demands convenience and access, rural hospitals face daily challenges on how to provide specialized services without compromising quality or patient satisfaction. Serving 18 counties in northeastern South Carolina and southeastern North Carolina, McLeod Health has hospitals in communities considered rural due to population size and proximity to larger, metropolitan areas.
As a member of a larger healthcare system, McLeod Health Dillon continues to keep up with technological advances, obtain state-of-the-art equipment and grow and flourish in a time when many rural hospitals face closure.
One enhancement offered by McLeod Health involves Telehealth, the delivery of health care treatment from a distance utilizing telecommunications. This form of medicine uses technology to provide specialized care in the areas of cardiology, vascular, pulmonary and psychiatry, remotely to rural areas such as Dillon.
Dillon, along with the entire Pee Dee region, has a high prevalence of heart disease and stroke. Telehealth provides the hospital with access to board certified cardiologists within the McLeod Health network.
The McLeod Telecardiology program brings a cardiologist virtually to the patient’s bedside through a telemedicine system that includes a monitor, camera and electronic stethoscope.
Candice Tyler, LPN, Patient Representative at McLeod Health Dillon, facilitates many of the telehealth consultations on campus. “Prior to the telecardiology visit, I provide the cardiologist with the patient’s records, lab and test results including telemetry, or cardiac rhythm strips,” explains Candice. “I also prepare the patient on what they may expect from their consultation, and make the introduction between the doctor and the patient.”
Once the cardiologist enters the “virtual” appointment via the large high-definition monitor, the consultation begins. Engaging in a real time, face-to-face encounter allows the physician to ask the patient questions about their symptoms, review their medical history, and discuss test results.
“The cardiologist uses the camera to check for any edema, or swelling, in the patient’s legs or feet and an electronic stethoscope to listen to the patient’s heart and lungs,” Candice says.
In addition to the high number of heart disease cases in Dillon County, respiratory conditions like asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) are also prevalent.
The McLeod Telepulmonary platform provides patients at McLeod Health Dillon with access to McLeod Pulmonologist Dr. Vinod Jona.
“Often when caring for a patient diagnosed with a respiratory illness such as COPD, emphysema or asthma, the hospitalist or inpatient medicine physician on call requests a telepulmonary consult,” explains Cynthia Pernell, Director of Cardiopulmonary Services at McLeod Health Dillon.
“If a patient experiences a change in their respiratory condition, or shows no sign of improvement from current treatments, the telepulmonary consult with Dr. Jona results in a change in medication or additional follow-up testing.
“Many patients who receive a telepulmonary visit also require a ventilator or BiPap machine to help them breathe. Sometimes we encounter difficulty weaning patients off of the machines, prompting the hospitalist to request a telehealth consult,” continues Cynthia.
The safety and efficiency of telehealth has also been shown to result in earlier detection of warning signs in patients, more timely interventions by providers and fewer hospital readmissions.
Additionally, the majority of patients who receive cardiology and pulmonary telehealth consults remain at McLeod Health Dillon rather than being transferred to McLeod Regional Medical Center, the regional tertiary care center.
“It is such a convenience for our patients,” adds Candice. “They appreciate not having to travel long distances to appointments with specialty providers.”
In the area of psychiatry, the South Carolina Department of Mental Health received a grant from The Duke Endowment in 2007 to begin a statewide telepsychiatry network in all South Carolina Emergency Departments. This form of telemedicine makes psychiatric consultations available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, including holidays and weekends. Prior to this grant, patients seeking mental health treatment would potentially stay in an Emergency Department for days without being seen, especially in rural areas with no access to psychiatric providers.
The McLeod Health Dillon Emergency Department, which averages around 180 psychiatric consults a year, has benefited greatly from this program.
“If a barrier prevents the placement of a patient for inpatient behavioral care, we can begin the recommended treatment plan from the telepsych provider without the patient having to wait,” said Dr. Amid Hamidi, Medical Director of Emergency Medicine at McLeod Health Dillon.
“McLeod TeleHealth brings specialty care typically not available in rural areas like Dillon right to the patient’s bedside,” said Joan Ervin, Administrator of McLeod Health Dillon. “Through telehealth, we increase our patients’ access to care and improve our overall quality of care.”
McLeod Health is now offering FREE virtual screenings for the Coronavirus in South Carolina through McLeod TeleHealth. If you are experiencing fever, sore throat, cough, or shortness of breath, you can connect through video with a trained medical professional anytime from anywhere using a computer,
smartphone or tablet. To access this free service, visit McLeodTeleHealth.org or download the McLeod TeleHealth app and enter the code COVID19 when you sign-up.
