Copper Queen Community Hospital in Bisbee has long been associated with telemedicine programs, but has just added a very new and innovative use of this technology. Teaming with Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, AZ, and a stroke telemedicine program will become available locally, approximately December 1.
Mayo Clinic in Arizona is the first in the state to do pioneering clinical research to study telemedicine as a means of serving stroke patients in remote locations. They established this program in Yuma and Kingman hospitals during the past two years. It is supported by an Arizona Department of Health Services Grant.
It is estimated that fewer than 2 percent of all stroke patients in remote Arizona communities receive appropriate clot-busting drugs, and the three-hour window of time to administer such drugs makes it difficult-if not impossible — to transport such patients to a primary stroke center in time. The administration of antithrombolitics has been very successful in limiting additional damage to the brain around the clot. This reduces the impact of the stroke on mental and body functions.
The Hospital will put together an educational program to help people identify early stroke symptoms so that they can get to the Hospital in time for intervention. Community members who wish to help support the telestroke program may call the Hospital Development Fund office or Hospital Administration for information on how to make a donation
Persons who suffer stroke symptoms can be evaluated by neurologists at the Mayo Clinic while remaining in the care of their local physician, or can be referred to a tertiary health center if that is the most prudent course of action. In either case, the Copper Queen Hospital physician has available the expertise of a specialist to help decide what is best for the patient and the specialist has the capability of evaluating the patient through use of technology that allows the patient to stay at the local health care site.
Copper Queen Community Hospital physicians can call the Mayo Clinic stroke alert hotline 24/7 and be given access to a vascular neurologist via two-way audio/video, Internet-based, independent telemedicine.
The system allows the Mayo physicians to do an emergency consultation by taking a history, examining the patient, determining the extent of neurological deficit, reviewing the CT brain scan and other necessary test, all the while talking and interfacing with the patient when possible. They then make recommendations and provide guidance to the remote emergency department personnel about the acute treatment program.
Bart Demaerschalk, M.D., Neurology, and Bentley Bobrow, M.D., Emergency Medicine are co-directors of the Mayo program.
Dr. Theresa McEntee, a long time Bisbee physician, has been named head of the hospital’s telemedicine programs, and will help to coordinate the program along with the hospital’s already established teletrauma, home health telemonitoring and teledermatology programs. “It is the hospital’s mission to provide access to primary and tertiary care”, according to Dr. McEntee. It is currently working with Carondelet’s Tucson Heart Hospital, University of Arizona and six other rural hospitals to develop real time cardiology consults in the Emergency Room and hospitals inpatients 24/7, 365. “This is the most immediate answer to the Physician Specialist shortage in all Arizona, but most especially true in rural communities,” according to Jim Dickson, CEO
The Hospital recognized the need to reduce transfers and develop expanded services to help with the acute care bed storage. In the winter and spring it is extremely hard to transfer patients because of the lack of bed availability in Tucson, according to Dr. Syed Azam, Internist and Chief of the Copper Queen Hospital Medical Staff. The availability of consultants who will support the local physician means we can care for more people at Copper Queen Community Hospital.