Northwell Health is expanding a new burn triage telehealth service to help doctors assess whether burn patients that present in emergency rooms can be treated onsite or need to be transported via ambulance or helicopter to the health system's burn ICU.

WHY IT MATTERS

Staten Island University Hospital's burn center specialists now provide teleburn consults for emergency medicine doctors at Long Island Jewish Forest Hills in Queens and will expand the service to ERs at Long Island Jewish Valley Stream and Long Island Medical Center, according to an announcement on Northwell's website.

This new use of telehealth will enable doctors to enhance the speed of care decisions and burn patient outcomes.

"With this technology, we can have a quick evaluation by a physician who is miles away and who can help us make decisions about care and whether we need to transfer a patient to that site," said Dr. Christopher Calandrella, chair of emergency medicine at Long Island Jewish Forest Hills, in the statement.

By pairing burn specialists with the video teleconferencing platform's image quality and functionality, experts at the burn center can remotely maneuver the teleburn camera to zoom in on a patient and better assess a wound, Northwell said. 

The specialists also have real-time access to the patient's data, Northwell said. 

"With this technology we can tell pretty quickly the different depths of burns, how large the burns are and what the treatments should be," added Dr. Michael Cooper, director of the burn center.

"This information is vital to provide the most accurate assessment of a burn injury, which can lead to the best outcome for the patient."

If need be, Northwell can provide New York City metropolitan area burn patients medical transport by helicopter to the 10-bed intensive care burn center.

THE LARGER TREND

Last year, Northwell Health, New York's largest healthcare provider, partnered with Teladoc Health to expand patient care delivery and boost clinical teamwork and communications.

Teladoc collaborates with Microsoft on a Teams software integration to create more digital front doors. 

"Our single, integrated solution, which spans both consumer and provider-to-provider applications, will add critical capabilities for Northwell Health in support of better health outcomes for all patients," said Andy Puterbaugh, president of hospital and health systems for Teladoc, in a statement.

Tools that connect doctors to specialists can enable primary care practices to provide patient-to-provider specialty matching, to access peer consultations and more.

In April, AristaMD announced its new unified care transition platform to help minimize patient wait times for specialties by connecting teleconsults and referrals.

ON THE RECORD

"This will ensure that patients who present at non-burn hospitals will have direct access to our expert specialists," said Dr. Jonathan Berkowitz, medical director of the Center for Emergency Medical Services at Northwell Health, in the statement. 

Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.