In mid-March, Jayion Thomas, a 22-month old boy from Greensboro in Caroline County, was the first pediatric patient to be treated using telemedicine technology at University of Maryland Shore Medical Center at Easton. Jayion was brought to the Emergency Department at Easton due to seizure activity caused by high body temperature. According to Jayion’s mother, Tecoy Chesley, the toddler has experienced high temperatures since birth and as a result, has suffered numerous seizures, beginning at four months of age.
Telemedicine is a form of telehealth that utilizes telecommunications and related technologies (including audio-video conferencing, remote image viewing and capturing and use of remote examination tools) to support health care services, patient and professional health-related education, public health and health administration.
UM SRH utilizes Yorktel telehealth carts, a leading global provider of unified communications & collaboration (UC&C) equipment. The cart is wheeled into the patient’s room where a physician located at another site is then connected to the cart and able to see the patient while conversing with him or her through a built in microphone. Yorktel designs, implements and maintains the equipment required for telehealth encounters and also monitors the entire telehealth network to ensure it is available when and where it is needed for patient care.
UMMS eCare and the University of Maryland School of Medicine collaborate with UM Shore Regional Health to offer telemedicine to patients in an effort to provide them with the right care, close to home.
A significant advantage of telemedicine, especially in rural areas, is that it provides access to physicians and various medical specialists who can offer support to a patient who might otherwise have to be transferred to another hospital to receive the necessary care. UM SMC at Easton is located approximately 70 miles (and more than 90 minutes of travel, including a trip across the Bay Bridge) from the University of Maryland Children’s Hospital Baltimore at the University of Maryland Medical Center.
At UM SMC at Easton, Norbert Straub, MD, consulted via telehealth with Getachew Teshome, MD, MPH, assistant professor at the UM School of Medicine and medical director of UMMC’s Pediatric Emergency Department in downtown Baltimore to establish the most effective treatment plan for Jayion, which included addressing his immediate health issues as well as referring him to neurology, asthma, and allergy specialists for further testing and care.
“Being able to consult with colleagues, regardless of physical location, and deliver the best plan for our patients is a huge advantage of the telemedicine technology,” says Walter Atha, MD, FACEP, regional director, Emergency Medicine at UM SRH. “This is the direction in which health care is heading and telemedicine will be vital to rural communities such as the ones here on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.”
“Bridging the gap between the eastern and western shores without having to transfer a patient is a wonderful opportunity that this technology has given us,” says Marc T. Zubrow, MD, vice president of Telemedicine for UMMS. “We will continue to enhance and expand the telemedicine capabilities for patients such as Jayion, allowing patients to receive the expert care they need without having to leave their local communities and support systems.”
“Jayion is very busy, loving and outgoing – it takes a lot to get him down,” says Chesley. “Because of the telemedicine system, I was able to obtain for my son the care he needed at the time he needed it most, plus a referral for follow-up care. and I was able to ask questions of both a local emergency physician and a Baltimore-based physician without ever having to leave the emergency department in Easton.”
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