Children's Hospitals Today - Fall 2022 - 26

FEATURE / TELEMEDICINE
interventions that were made during
the transport improved the baby's physiological
condition, and a life was saved. "
TeleTransport also allows the physiA
CLOSER LOOK
The virtual care
continuum
Thanks to telemedicine,
Children's Health can connect
with patients at any point
in their health care journey
or, as the hospital calls it,
the virtual care continuum.
Here's how the hospital
leverages technology to
improve patient care.
TeleFetal care. In the NICU,
providers can virtually connect
with expecting parents or
connect with a physician in a
remote NICU.
TeleNICU program. This
allows the provider to conduct
a virtual assessment and
determine if a patient requires
a higher level of care.
TeleMental Health. The Texas
Child Health Access Through
Telemedicine (TCHATT)
program brings tele-mental
health services into 55
schools across the state.
TeleTransport. Neonatologists
can connect with transport
teams while a patient is
en route and talk with the
referring physician. Once
the patient is in the NICU,
providers can livestream at the
bedside for family and friends.
cians and the transport nurses to meet
the parents virtually. " The transport
nurses can engage with the family so
they can understand the specialty care
being provided and also meet our physicians
who are caring for their child
early in the process, " says Scotti Floyd
Edgar, director of Transport Services at
Children's Health.
When they transported their first
patient with the new technology, the
team at Children's Health was able to explain
the critical nature of the patient's
condition to the parents and keep them
updated, helping to reduce their anxiety
during a stressful time.
Kristin Carlton, program director for
Telespecialty and Clinical Outreach, says
it also helps ease the parents' transition
to the hospital. " If parents are able to
meet the neonatologist and team virtually
before transport, when they arrive
at Children's Health, they see familiar
faces, adding some level of comfort to a
very stressful time. "
Jumpstarting critical care
TeleTransport allows Level IV care
to start before the patients reach the
NICU. One important example is using
therapeutic hypothermia for babies
with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy,
a brain injury that can occur during
birth. When babies have been severely
depressed at birth and deprived of
oxygen or blood flow to the brain, their
brain is at risk.
" Hypothermia is the only treatment
currently shown to reduce death or
disability in this instance, but only if
the encephalopathy is recognized immediately
and treatment is initiated
in the first six hours after birth-time
is of the essence, " says Lina Chalak,
M.D., neonatologist and director of
the Neonatal NeuroNICU Program
at Children's Health and professor at
26
UT Southwestern. " We have invested
in a Tecotherm Neo device, the only
FDA-approved method for cooling patients
during transport, and trained
the team on using it as part of the
TeleTransport program. "
The sooner the cooling begins, the
better the patient's chances for avoiding
brain injury. Typically, the EMT team
can't start
the cooling process until
they arrive at the hospital, but with
TeleTransport, the patient can be actively
cooled in the ambulance, allowing
them to start the critical therapy sooner.
" To determine what patients qualify
for this intervention, we need to be able
to examine them remotely, " says Dariya.
" Then, with certainty, we can tell the
transport team to start the process.' "
The future of TeleTransport
TeleTransport
is the latest effort
in
Children's Health's goal to extend Level
IV care to patients across the region.
In partnership with UT Southwestern
Medical Center, the hospital developed
one of the nation's most comprehensive
TeleNICU programs in 2013. They have
virtually examined more than 200
neonates, and more than half of those
patients have been able to remain in
their home hospitals.
Now the Children's Health team is
looking for ways to virtually connect
with more patients and more providers.
The next goal is to provide TeleTransport
capability on " any and every transport, "
says Dariya. " And not just for the NICU.
My hope is that our colleagues in the
emergency department, pediatric ICU
and cardiovascular ICU all find benefit
doing this. Any service within this hospital
should have the ability to evaluate
a sick patient before they arrive. "
This article was originally produced
and published by Children's Health
at childrens.com.
Send questions or comments to
magazine@childrenshospitals.org.
CHILDREN'S HOSPITALS TODAY Fall 2022
http://www.childrens.com
Children's Hospitals Today - Fall 2022

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