CHRISTUS Mother Frances Hospital – Sulphur Springs, located in rural East Texas, needed more physician capacity to fully cover its ICU, as its family medicine physicians were working in both the outpatient clinics and hospital. In order to get more availability and complex ICU management expertise, it introduced a teleCritical Care service line with Access TeleCare in 2013.
“That’s where telemedicine really picked up for us with the ability to provide that intensive care, 24/7, without having to physically be there,” said Martin Fielder, M.D, chief medical officer, CHRISTUS Mother Frances Hospital – Sulphur Springs.
How Access TeleCare Can Help
Through Access TeleCare’s telemedicine, the hospital improved their ICU management with the ability to have 24/7 specialist coverage in its ICU. For physicians, the telemedicine partnership meant reduced burnout and increased ability to focus on outpatient care. For the hospital, the partnership meant the ability to increase the number of patients it can treat in its ICU, while also decreasing the number of patients needing transfer to another hospital. For patients, it meant they could receive specialty care closer to home.
Paul Harvey, CEO of CHRISTUS Mother Frances Hospital – Sulphur Springs sums it up like this: “This hospital is bringing in services so families in our community can stay here for care without having to travel to Dallas or somewhere far from home.”
Since 2013, the hospital has continued to expand its services through telemedicine, adding four additional service lines from Access TeleCare, including teleNeurology, teleNephrology, teleInfectious disease, and teleHospitalist services.
Read more about the Access TeleCare Telemedicine Platform.
Watch the video to see how expanding services through telemedicine in healthcare can make a difference for your hospital.
