New eHealth Program Connects MidHudson Regional Hospital ICU With Specialized Westchester Medical Center Health Network Hub

New eHealth Program Connects MidHudson Regional Hospital ICU With Specialized Westchester Medical Center Health Network Hub

2/24/2016

WMCHealth Telehealth Initiative Aimed at Providing Integrated Care Across the Hudson Valley

A state-of-the-art, technology-driven eHealth Program linking the 15-bed intensive care unit (ICU) at MidHudson Regional Hospital in Poughkeepsie to Westchester Medical Center Health Network's (WMCHealth) specialized telehealth operations center is now operational, further establishing WMCHealth as the pre-eminent provider of integrated medical care across the Hudson Valley.

WMCHealth's telehealth initiative allows ICU medical experts to complement – not replace – the dedicated ICU care teams at MidHudson Regional Hospital. Already improving ICU outcomes at Westchester Medical Center where the program has been online for several months, the eHealth program's extra level of care - provided by physicians, nurses and other ICU specialists - originates from WMCHealth's 5,500-foot eHealth operations center, which is equipped with 20 multimedia stations featuring the latest patient monitoring technologies and software. The eHealth Program's operations center is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

ICU specialists in WMCHealth's eHealth operations center are able to remotely monitor the vital signs of patients in MidHudson Regional Hospital's ICU. Specialized software records individual patient baselines and alerts the medical staff in the eHealth Program's operations center to status changes and potential dangers. With this information at hand, healthcare professionals in the eHealth operations center now collaborate with ICU bedside teams at MidHudson Regional Hospital on care, plus communicate with patients and their family members through cameras and microphones installed in patient rooms. To protect patient privacy, the cameras are turned away from patients when communication ceases between medical professionals in the eHealth center and the patients or their representatives.

"As the only health network based in the Hudson Valley, WMCHealth is striving to provide the highest level of care as close to home as possible," said Michael Israel, President and CEO, Westchester Medical Center Health Network.  "By monitoring ICU patients at MidHudson Regional Hospital with a second set of expertly-trained eyes, more local residents can receive advanced care in Dutchess County without transfers to our sites in Westchester County.

"This initiative will bring our healthcare expertise further into the Hudson Valley communities that we serve, and we hope to extend our eHealth program to additional WMCHealth sites and programs in the near future."

"Telehealth systems are used successfully by hundreds of hospitals across the United States, and research shows how the incorporation of telehealth initiatives can reduce mortality by 20 percent and hospital stay length by 26 percent, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association," shared Corey Scurlock, M.D., Medical Director, WMCHealth eHealth Center.  "Telehealth is a proven advance in medicine that leads to better patient outcomes. We are proud to provide this service, uniquely, to Hudson Valley residents."

A portion of the advanced technologies used in WMCHealth's eHealth program were acquired as part of network's transformative business partnership with Philips.  Earlier this year WMCHealth and Philips entered into an historic, $500 million partnership that over its 15-year term will bring the most sophisticated and helpful medical technologies to Hudson Valley residents cared for through network services.