Blogs

July 31, 2012 - Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto

Jul 31, 2012 by Marc Strode, CEO
Folks,
The newest member of our team arrived today.  C3PO?  Twiggy from Buck Rogers?  R2D2?  Close....I'm sure she'll be named soon enough!  Right now we are just glad to have the latest piece of technology to have in our toolkit as we deliver exceptional care to our community.

The robot will be hanging out mostly in the ER, although we can roll her just about anywhere like into the newborn nursery or the ICU. 

The purpose of the robot is to introduce the next wave of telemedicine to VVRMC.  Currently, we deploy this technology in our Heritage program for behavioral health.  This is not too much different in concept, just a whole lot sexier!  Our robot will afford us the opportunity to beam up specialists in San Antonio or Denver or anywhere for that matter to help our doctors and other caregivers at the bedside make assessment and render care to patients.  There is no substitute for being here on the ground.  Next best thing pick up the telephone and consult a doc.  With this, we combine those as we intend to credential additional specialists who can be called upon to dial up, zoom into the room, see the patient, hear the patient, etc.  We can even plug in our machines into the robot like EKG which will then transmit the image to where ever the specialist might be. 

Let me give you an example where this could really help us, help you, or maybe help your neighbor.  Let's say someone has a stroke.  They come into the ED w/ all the classic signs and symptoms.  As quick as we can we make the call to ship the patient to Methodist in San Antonio.  A helicopter arrives and in an hour or so they are in the care of a neurologist at the receiving hospital.  However, in this scenario, the window to administer TPA, a powerful drug that can reverse the symptoms of stroke immediately and remarkably, has closed.  Too late.  Can't do it when they get to SA.  With the robot, same patient presents and now that we have neurology on-call in the ED 24/7, the neurologist can dial up, evaluate the patient and help the ED physician make the call on how to treat.  In many circumstances, it eliminates a costly and inconvenient patient transfer. 

We see many applications here.  Stroke care is just one.  And with this technology we ought to be in a spot to go after Joint Commission's coveted Stroke Certification for VVRMC.  Exciting!!!  But beyond that, when Dr. Osorio is off one weekend and we don't have cardiology coverage, we can dial in and a cardiac hospitalist at Methodist Heart Hospital can consult in his absence and determine if the patient can stay here and be managed remotely by the cardiologist in SA until Dr. Osorio gets back.  We will also use it for psychiatry.  This is good stuff and I think has a whole lot of potential. 

We are one of the first hospitals, if not the first hospital in South or West Texas to deploy the technology.  We will keep you posted on when we go-live and what the results are. 

Keep the Spirit,
Marc