ORGANIZATION
University of Mississippi Medical Center
YEARS
2002 – 2007
ENSURING HEALTH CARE ACCESS
TelEmergency: Distance Emergency Care
Using Nurse Practitioners
TelEmergency: Distance Emergency Care
Using Nurse Practitioners
The TelEmergency Program originated from an idea in 2001 to allow patients in rural areas of Mississippi to be quickly evaluated, diagnosed and treated by board certified emergency medicine physicians. Providing quality emergency care in rural areas is a common problem in Mississippi due to limited resources and a scarcity of medical providers. Many times, rural residents with emergency medical needs are hundreds of miles away from getting appropriate care. Consequently, The University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) was receiving calls from nurse practitioners at rural hospitals asking for help with emergency treatment or for helicopter transport.
The UMMC approached The Bower Foundation with a unique concept of delivering quality emergency medical care to rural areas. The novel system proposed to utilize a nurse practitioner at rural hospitals, the Emergency Department of UMMC and telemedicine technology to effectively provide emergency coverage. This model offered support to local practitioners charged with providing round-the-clock medical coverage to some of Mississippi’s most medically underserved regions.
Currently, TelEmergency provides emergency medical coverage to 12 emergency departments in rural critical access hospitals and to the Mississippi state capitol when the Mississippi Legislature is in session. Critical access hospitals are limited-serve hospitals that provide essential services to communities in rural areas. Over 70,000 patients have been evaluated by the program since October 2003.
The specially trained nurse practitioners are linked in real time by telemedicine with their collaborating physicians at the UMMC’s Adult Emergency Department. The system involves the use of cameras and television monitors located at the foot of the patient’s bed that is connected to similar equipment at UMMC. A nurse practitioner can take the patient’s initial history and conduct a physical exam, then “dial up” an emergency room physician at UMMC. The physician is able to fully control the camera at the rural site to focus on an area of interest while conversing with the nurse practitioner and the patient. The doctor will advise the nurse practitioner on the best method of treatment. Board certified physicians are available around the clock. A physician is actually sitting in front of the monitor from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. each day and on call for the remaining eight hours.
After receiving start-up funding from the Foundation, the program has become financially self-sufficient and has also received $5.8 million from FCC to expand the program to link to more hospitals, health departments, and physician offices.
The TelEmergency program business model is a win-win situation for patients, hospitals and medical practitioners. According to Dr. Robert Galli, UMMC professor and chair of Emergency Medicine, the program has the potential of becoming the first true solution for providing health care in rural Mississippi emergency departments by:
The UMMC approached The Bower Foundation with a unique concept of delivering quality emergency medical care to rural areas. The novel system proposed to utilize a nurse practitioner at rural hospitals, the Emergency Department of UMMC and telemedicine technology to effectively provide emergency coverage. This model offered support to local practitioners charged with providing round-the-clock medical coverage to some of Mississippi’s most medically underserved regions.
Currently, TelEmergency provides emergency medical coverage to 12 emergency departments in rural critical access hospitals and to the Mississippi state capitol when the Mississippi Legislature is in session. Critical access hospitals are limited-serve hospitals that provide essential services to communities in rural areas. Over 70,000 patients have been evaluated by the program since October 2003.
The specially trained nurse practitioners are linked in real time by telemedicine with their collaborating physicians at the UMMC’s Adult Emergency Department. The system involves the use of cameras and television monitors located at the foot of the patient’s bed that is connected to similar equipment at UMMC. A nurse practitioner can take the patient’s initial history and conduct a physical exam, then “dial up” an emergency room physician at UMMC. The physician is able to fully control the camera at the rural site to focus on an area of interest while conversing with the nurse practitioner and the patient. The doctor will advise the nurse practitioner on the best method of treatment. Board certified physicians are available around the clock. A physician is actually sitting in front of the monitor from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. each day and on call for the remaining eight hours.
After receiving start-up funding from the Foundation, the program has become financially self-sufficient and has also received $5.8 million from FCC to expand the program to link to more hospitals, health departments, and physician offices.
The TelEmergency program business model is a win-win situation for patients, hospitals and medical practitioners. According to Dr. Robert Galli, UMMC professor and chair of Emergency Medicine, the program has the potential of becoming the first true solution for providing health care in rural Mississippi emergency departments by:
- Improving the emergency medical services and healthcare to underserved areas of Mississippi
- Addressing the state’s chronic shortage of physicians in rural areas
- Creating a self-sufficient system
- Educating physicians in management skills
- Educating nurse practitioners in medical diagnostic skills