Bisbee TeleMedicine Expands

BISBEE — Copper Queen Community Hospital is adding another layer to its telemedicine services and it should be operational by spring of next year.

Thanks to a $150,000 grant awarded by UnitedHealthcare, CQCH is one several rural hospitals in southeastern Arizona that will be bringing cardiology consultation to its patients through telemedicine.

Along with CQCH, hospitals in the Southeastern Arizona Telemedicine Alliance include Northern Cochise Community Hospital in Willcox; Benson Community Hospital; Mount Graham Regional Medical Center in Safford; and Southeast Arizona Medical Center in Douglas.

“This alliance’s main purpose is to create telemedicine networks to provide specialized care for the people in our communities,” said Jim Dickson, chief executive officer for CQCH. “The alliance was joined by Carondelet Health Network, Tucson Heart Hospital, Pima Heart Group and Tucson Heart Group.”

The network allows rural hospitals on-site cardiology consults for emergency room and hospitalized patients.

Copper Queen Community Hospital CEO, Jim Dickson, left, and Donna Zazworsky, Carondelet Health Network telemedicine outreach director, talk with George Haded using the Bisbee hospital’s telemedicine system which is directly connected to the University Medical Center in Tucson. (Mark Levy-Herald/Review)

“In CQCH’s case, it means we will be transporting 14 fewer patients to Tucson each month for cardiology appointments,” Dickson said.

“Heart disease is the No. 1 killer in rural areas, so this is a critical addition to our program.”

Telemedicine has become a critical component for providing access to quality health care in the medically underserved areas of southeastern Arizona. These services offer a significant reduction in health care costs for the patient. For example, physicians are able to give their patients immediate care during times when specialty consultations are necessary, without having to transport them to other hospitals. Since implementing its telemedicine programs, Dickson says that CQCH transfers fewer patients to hospitals in Tucson and Phoenix to see specialists.

“This cardiology system will blossom out to the different rural health clinics operated by each of the hospitals,” Dickson said. “For CQCH, those include the clinics in Palominas, Bisbee and Douglas.”

The system is modeled after the Marshfield Clinic in Wisconsin where physicians have been conducting cardiology consults via telemedicine since 1998. Once the system is in place throughout the network, it will mark the first time in this country that a group of rural hospitals will offer cardiology consult through telemedicine.

“This is a good solution to the physician shortage that is plaguing Arizona,” Dickson said. “It’s a shortage that will only be getting worse in the future.”

CQCH started implementing its telemedicine program a little more than four years ago. During that time, the system has made the following specialties available: teledermatology, telehome health, telestroke, teleradiology and teleneurology. The goal is to have telecardiology fully operational by March, 2010.

“This is, in essence, our solution for bringing tertiary medicine to rural areas,” Dickson said.

The cardiology program will be implemented in two phases. The first phase is to connect the system with hospitals in Tucson, along with the rural hospitals. The second phase will be to bring cardiac wellness programs and consults to the rural health clinics operated by the various hospitals.

The whole program should be operational by March 2010, and the first phase will be up and running sometime around November 2010.

“Our telemedicine services have been very popular with our patients,” Dickson said. “When people come to the Copper Queen for different reasons, they’re just not expecting that level of care in a small, rural hospital, without having to travel to Tucson or Phoenix. In our home health program, patients feel so much more comfortable because it allows them access to one of their providers at all times.”

Delivering health services via telecommunications involves a collaborative effort between medical staff at different facilities. Physicians view the information and can provide medical staff with real-time consultations hundreds of miles away. The CQCH is hooked-up with different hospitals in Phoenix and Tucson.

The $150,000 UnitedHealthcare grant will be distributed among all the hospitals in the network