What is telemedicine? Telemedicine works by using technology, such as cameras and computers, to connect your local care team to specialists who can evaluate you and recommend a plan of care. It allows for fast, efficient and effective care. Patients benefit by gaining access to specialized care close to home, and physicians benefit by having an easy and efficient way to better care for their patients.

The video below will walk you through a demonstration of how our telestroke service works, and how it helps us save lives, allows you to receive care close to home in some instances and provides you with the most appropriate care.

Patients who may be suffering from stroke or other neurological problems now have access to a critical layer of care through the telestroke service. During a stroke, millions of brain cells die per minute, so getting care quickly is critical. When a patient arrives in our hospital’s emergency department with neurological symptoms, the neurology team immediately assesses their condition and then connects with a telemedicine cart, a video communication technology designed to allow a neurologist to provide 24/7 consultation from an off-site location.

Benefits for the patient include:

• Provides a fast and accurate diagnosis for neurology patients
• Neurologist consult available 24/7 to provide guidance to the emergency room staff on how best to treat the patient, including whether or not the patient needs to be admitted or transferred to another hospital
• The neurologist can also guide the team on the administration of tPA, a clot-busting treatment administered through IV that is considered best practice in treating stroke patients.
• Typically, treatment is completed within an hour.  When intervention happens early, patients generally experience better long-term recovery.

Did you know a physician can listen to your heartbeat and pulse remotely? Our telecardiology services are there to appropriately assess you and make sure you get the quickest and most efficient care.

Our team evaluates and tests any patient that comes to the emergency room with typical or atypical signs of a heart attack. If the patient is actively having a heart attack, they are stabilized and transferred via ambulance or helicopter to the nearest facility that provides heart catherization lab services.

The telemedicine cart is placed in the patient’s room and is outfitted with a special camera that can zoom in and out to check patient’s pupils and vital signs, such as breathing and heart sounds.

Once the consult is completed, the cardiologist will recommend a plan of care for the patient.

Benefits for the patient include:

• Having a board-certified cardiologist at the bedside
• Provides specialist support to local physicians
• Helps keep the patient close to family and friends
• Allows the cardiologist access to the patient’s chart before consultation through Baptist OneCare’s MyChart, the patient portal segment of Baptist’s electronic health record
• Helps reduce the cost associated with ambulance transfers and secondary hospital bills

Baptist Carroll County recently began using an eICU monitoring technology known as Teleguardian^© to care for ICU patients. Through a camera turned on at designated times and a monitor mounted on the wall in each of the hospital’s ICU rooms, specially-trained nurses in Baptist’s Telehealth Center based in Memphis can view a Carroll County patient in real time—allowing them to work directly with the hospital’s intensive care and critical care team, to provide 24/7 care to patients.

Board-certified critical care physicians (known as intensivists) who are trained to provide specialized care to ICU patients also work in tandem with the critical care nurses to provide an additional level of care and support.

Patients benefit in several key ways:

• Higher overall survival rates
• 24/7 remote patient monitoring by experienced critical care nurses who can answer questions or discuss patient care
• Changes in patients’ conditions are quickly identified in real time and addressed immediately to help avoid complications during recovery
• Shorter lengths of stay in the unit for some patients
• Fewer days on a ventilator
• Lower rate of preventable complications, such as pneumonia and sepsis

In March 2019, Baptist Carroll County was recognized with the prestigious Chest Pain Accreditation by the American College of Cardiology. Hospitals receiving Chest Pain Accreditation have demonstrated exceptional competency in treating patients with chest pain, according to the ACC. They have streamlined their systems from admission to evaluation to diagnosis and treatment all the way through to appropriate post-discharge care.

Baptist Carroll County’s cardiac services include:

• Telecardiology services provided by Stern Cardiology
• Cardiac rehab
• Chest pain observation care
• Outpatient stress testing