As a
part of this research, leading programs across the nation were studied.
This research brought them to HealthNet-Texas Tech University Health
Science Center. The program at HealthNet was chosen because they had
successful experience providing telemedical consultative services
to 108 counties in rural western Texas. The basis for their success
is in comprehensive continuing education programs for physicians,
nurses, and other allied health professionals. Their close working
relationship with rural physicians and specialists has enabled them
to develop the innovative new TeleDoc™, a fully integrated and
mobile unit that contains everything needed to conduct comprehensive
patient assessments. The extensive involvement of physicians during
the research and development phase facilitated their creation of a
unit that is easy to use and suited to the needs of physicians. HealthNet
has since teamed with NEC America, Inc., to concentrate on quality
manufacturing and technology development.
St. Alexius
Medical Center began the TeleCare Network in the fall of 1995 as a
pilot project with Garrison Memorial Hospital/Clinic and Turtle Lake
Community Memorial Hospital. During the first two years of operation,
the network was expanded to include over 25 rural health care facilities.
In the early years the network had a small office within the Medical
Center, and had just one person on its staff.
Cooperative
venture …
The TeleCare
Network is a cooperative telemedicine service of St. Alexius Medical
Center, PrimeCare Health Group, and affiliated physicians. It is offered
in collaboration with over 20 other health care facilities throughout
the Dakotas.
Further
expansion …
Initially,
the focus was on providing clinical consultations. That focus has
recently expanded to utilizing the system for continuing medical education,
other educational presentations, and administrative uses. With the
increase in usage over the years, and the growing necessity of telemedicine,
the network has expanded. In addition to adding sites to its list
it has also moved to a new office within the Medical Center which
provides a classroom setup for educational purposes, a private consultation
room, and offices for four employees.
During
the initial pilot with Garrison and Turtle Lake, administrators and
physicians from rural facilities were invited to see a demonstration
and discussion regarding the value of telemedicine for their particular
community. The interest expressed by these rural communities was phenomenal!
They were interested in utilizing telemedicine as a means of improving
access to specialty physicians and keeping more patients at home for
their health care. With that, plans were initiated to consider immediate
network expansion.
Goal
…
The
goal of the network is to deliver high health care services, cooperatively,
between providers in all communities of the network. This improves
continuity of patient care and reduces time and travel expenses of
physicians and/or patients and their families seeking specialty services.
Technology
…
Our
dedicated T-1 network supports an active, full motion interactive
video teleconferencing network, utilizing the Teledoc equipment and
the NEC EX 7 Codec. The teleradiology services uses EMED SYSTEMS equipment
using T-1 transmission rate.
