WVU Medicine St. Joseph's Hospital and United Hospital Center in Bridgeport, W.Va., clinicians have established a telemedicine-based connection to virtually communicate with one another and treat infectious disease patients, according to a Nov. 29 Inter-Mountain report.
St. Joseph's Hospital, which is part of Morgantown, W.Va.-based WVU Medicine, is able to use telemedicine technology to connect with infectious disease specialists at UHC. The hospitals are able to exchange patient records through their Epic EHR systems, which helps streamline the remote diagnosis process.
Despite being located 30 miles away from St. Joseph's Hospital, UHC specialists can video chat with St. Joseph's Hospital clinicians and patients in need of infectious disease care.
"I truly think that utilizing this technology will help to provide medicine to patients in rural areas and even at home, helping to expedite more aggressive or directed therapies for complex medical cases," said Jonathan Stanley, DO, infection disease specialist at UHC, according to the report.