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New tech brings quick treatment options

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Three years ago, occupational medicine specialist Dr. Anjum Qureshi, sought to expedite and improve the care of injured workers in rural areas. Her idea consisted of a quiet, private room tucked within a workplace, a table and a high-resolution camera. Thanks to the technology, Qureshi was able to interact with and diagnose the first patient in the pilot program at Penmac Staffing Services from 200 miles away. The camera allowed her to zoom in and see that he had a corneal abrasion. Through telemedicine, the employee was treated, sent back to work quickly and spared the two-hour drive into Springfield from West Plains.

DirectConnect Occupational Medicine was created and is now available to injured employees working for companies contracted to receive CoxHealth Telemedicine services. They are able to do initial visits, follow-up visits and release employees back to full duty.

“Ninety-five percent of what we start through telemedicine, we end with telemedicine,” Qureshi said. “That’s a huge benefit to the telemedicine service.”

The logic is that quicker help means quicker healing.

“The employee is back to work, which is their main goal,” said Betsy Kilfoy, director of risk management for Penmac Staffing. “It makes the employee happier, the company happier and us happier.”

Bridget Ohara, project manager of DirectConnect, said 150 groups are signed-up directly and many others are signed-up through Cox HealthPlans.

“CHP has it added as a benefit for all their large groups of 100 employees or more and will open it to all their groups and individuals in 2017,” she said.

And, Ohara said, it’s easy for a company to incorporate the program.

“They just have to endorse us and allow us to come and educate their staff,” Ohara said.

Each company sets the program up differently. Some request employees share the cost and others pay for the visit entirely. Some employers even offer basic care to part-time employees.

Ohara said over half the companies that use DirectConnect are schools.

Nancy Kubick, administrative assistant to the executive director of operations in the Ozark R-6 School District, said she has personally never used it, but she has talked with several co-workers who have. One had poison ivy. The CoxHealth doctor looked at it virtually and diagnosed it, and her co-worker drove to the pharmacy and got the medication. Right now, the program is only for faculty and staff.

“It’s awesome. I think it is the way of the future,” she said.

Qureshi said early intervention is essential to good health and productive employees. With the help of technology, issues can be addressed before they become dire.

“If we see a patient today and in three days they are getting worse, instead of waiting, we can reconnect with them,” she said. “The great thing with this is that we can get the patient back to work within half an hour versus losing an entire day by driving.”

Also, doctors can speak with injured employees and supervisors together and outline exactly the next steps to get back to health.

CoxHealth introduced DirectConnect Basic Care once again to employees working for companies contracted to receive CoxHealth Telemedicine services.

CoxHealth recently expanded those services to anyone for a flat fee of $49 per visit. A patient downloads the Vidyo application to a mobile device or computer, submits a request for a visit and is generally contacted within 10 minutes or less.

At Penmac Staffing, Kilfoy said perhaps most impressive is the high-resolution camera used.

Qureshi said the camera is a vital tool, although medical diagnoses are generally pattern-based and a great deal of information is garnered just from conversing with the patient. A doctor usually has three possibilities in mind before the physical examination takes place, she said.

She credits the technology with allowing doctors to basically make house calls again.

“We are actually going to the patient. The patient doesn’t have to come to us anymore,” Qureshi said. “It’s very exciting.”

Up next for CoxHealth is two other telemedicine pilot programs: athletic training and speech therapy.

“The sky’s the limit,” Ohara said. “There is ongoing conversation about specialties, and behavioral health is another hot ticket that keeps being brought up.”

Mercy recently expanded its Engagement at Home program from St. Louis to Springfield. The program serves high-risk patients by keeping them at home as much as possible through the use of technology kits.

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