Willmar, Minn.-based Rice Memorial Hospital unveiled its new heart-failure telemedicine program as part of a collaboration with CentraCare Health in St. Cloud, Minn., according to the West Central Tribune.
Under the telemedicine program, Rice Memorial Hospital serves as a satellite location for patients to complete a virtual appointment with specialists who are based at CentraCare Heart and Vascular Center in St. Cloud.
During a virtual appointment, a specialist can use a mini-camera to take a close-up look at a patient's ankles to check for swelling. They can also listen to a patient's heart and lung sounds, which are transmitted from a stethoscope to St. Cloud for clinicians to listen to using headphones.
Rice Memorial Hospital is the first satellite CentraCare Health has partnered with to offer the service. CentraCare Heart hopes that more sites will join the telemedicine program to broaden the outreach that the health system can provide.
"This is more than setting up the technology," Jamie Pelzel, MD, medical director of CentraCare's heart failure clinic, told West Central Tribune. "We've been co-managing patients. We're only enhancing what's already taking place."