Red Bluff, Calif.-based St. Elizabeth Community Hospital will deploy a new telemedicine intensive care unit program Sept. 3 that uses a robot to connect staff hospitalists with Dignity Health specialists, Red Bluff Daily News reports.
St. Elizabeth is a San Francisco-based Dignity Health hospital. With the new robot, St. Elizabeth physicians will be able to virtually consult with Dignity Health physicians who have various specialties, including pulmonary critical care.
"It's a department within Dignity Health that provides remote presence services to Dignity Health hospitals," said Denise Pimentel, RN coordinator for the telemedicine network, according to the report. "It brings specialty physicians to areas that don't have those specialties in their area."
Dignity Health physicians involved in the telemedicine ICU program will use the robot to talk face-to-face with the St. Elizabeth Community Hospital patient or their families. The robot is also able to display the patient's X-ray on screen and can, with help from a nurse, listen to a patient's internal sounds through a stethoscope.
Through the new program, St. Elizabeth clinicians will have access to Dignity Health specialists within five minutes of reaching out, according to the report.