HCHC exploring telemedicine possibilities for newborn care

By BRYCE KELLY

Mt. Pleasant News

Henry County Health Center?s Board of Trustees approved an agreement with University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC) that will expand the health center?s newborn care services during their monthly meeting on Tuesday.

With the board?s approval, HCHC?s physicians and nurses will soon have the capability to partake in telemedicine consults with UIHC newborn care specialists via online video conferencing. Currently, HCHC medical providers can only call UIHC physicians as part of a consult.

?Consulting between medical providers is very common in the medical world,? explained HCHC CEO, Rob Gardner. ?What we would like to do with this telemedicine program is add a visual component so as to give providers the ability to see patients and offer support in real-time to newborns who may be in distress, or have a unique medical issue.?

The cost of the program to HCHC is still to be determined as officials are waiting on the official agreement form to be sent from UIHC.

?Our intent is to do a 90-day pilot period with the program so we can learn about it and get familiar with it. We do foresee using the service one to two times per month at most, but obviously that rate can fluctuate from month to month,? Gardner said. ?Our staff is very much looking forward to having the program as a resource.?

If the program is officially picked up, HCHC will be the first critical access hospital in the state to partner with UIHC to do the program.

Besides talk of a new telemedicine program, Devan Rhum, HCHC?s director of cardiopulmonary services, updated the board on the department?s recent happenings. During his report, Rhum touched on the department?s current upswing in patient visits, saying that new trends are starting to emerge.

?The number of patients we see in cardiopulmonary rehab is getting larger, while the average age of our patients is getting younger,? reported Rhum.

In addition, Rhum reported that a lot of the department?s equipment is getting larger in order to accommodate patients. Most of the department?s equipment is now safe for patients weighing up to 500 pounds to use.

?A lot of our patients have experienced a major cardiac event in their life and our job is to help them get back into a healthy condition,? said Rhum. ?A typical cardiac rehab program is about 36 sessions. In that time, we also offer different health education topics to patients and their families.?

And this new trend of larger equipment and steady intake of patients, according to Rhum and others, is causing the cardiopulmonary department to feel a little crowded at times.

Recently, board member Ron Clouse performed a regular inspection of the health center, taking a tour of Rhum?s department and concurred that space is limited.

?During my tour, many on the nursing and medical staff (in the cardiopulmonary department) agreed that additional room would be much appreciated for not only themselves, but for the patients as well,? said Clouse. ?Despite the lack of space at times, I think the staff there are doing a wonderful job.?

While nothing was decided upon to help deter some of the space issues in the cardiopulmonary department, the board did make a note of it and said that ways to help the situation will continue to be investigated.

In addition, the board also discussed the following:

? The board reviewed a recent self-assessment survey showing that better communication within individual departments was an area that had room for improvement.

? Gardner gave an update on Iowa Medicaid Managed Care.

? HCHC CFO Dave Muhs gave his monthly financial report.

The board ended the open meeting by moving into closed session in order to discuss patient care quality.