This August, Winchester’s Clark Regional Medical Center (CRMC) will offer a service rare in this region — a 24-hour on-call neurologist.
For many small, regional hospitals like CRMC, the patient volume doesn’t justify hiring enough neurologists to staff the hospital 24 hours a day. Right now, CRMC has one neurologist, Dr. Aleksandr Mogilevski. If Mogilevski is not available, patients with suspected neurological problems, particularly stroke patients, must be sent to other hospitals for further evaluation.
To be able to provide patients with another service allowing them to stay in town in an efficient way, LifePoint, CRMC’s parent company, turned to Specialist On Call. The company provides board-certified doctors who provide teleconsultations, examining a patient remotely through a system similar to Skype.
“More and more, people are moving to telemedicine to fill the gaps,” said CRMC’s CEO Cherie Sibley.
Teleneurology is particularly efficient because doctors can evaluate a patient without being physically present. Eventually, the hospital also hopes to offer telepsychiatry.
“It’s especially good for small hospitals that may not need multiple physicians on staff,” Sibley said. “This will just give us more options.”
Emergency director Ashley Moore, R.N., said teleneurology will benefit patients because the time between the onset of symptoms and treatment is crucial for a successful recovery for stroke victims. With Specialist On Call, some patients will be able to avoid the transfer to another hospital and the wait to be seen by another physician.
“Every minute counts when you have an acute stroke,” Moore said.
Right now, to see a neurologist, a patient may be transferred to the University of Kentucky or St. Joseph Hospital in Lexington. But there were times when the options even in Lexington were limited, Moore said.
“Neurology is a really high-tech specialty, and there are few neurologists in the state of Kentucky,” Moore said.
With Specialist On Call, Moore estimates that about 20-30 patients will be able to see a neurologist on-site each month.
“We’re so close to Lexington, but so far away when it comes to care,” Moore said.
After a consultation from the neurologist, the ER doctor may be able to immediately begin treatment at CRMC.
ER staff members were to begin training in late July, and Moore said she expected Specialist On Call to be available in August.
LifePoint also plans to implement the service at other hospitals in Kentucky, including Georgetown, Versailles, Maysville and Paris.
“They’re so limited; there are definitely times and sequences when many hospitals don’t have a neurologist on call. It’s definitely a sought-after specialty,” Moore said.