Lake Chelan Community Hospital
Lake Chelan Community Hospital (LCCH) is a fully-accredited Critical Access Hospital in North Central Washington's Lake Chelan Valley. Ten physicians and seven surgeons serve Lake Chelan Community Hospital, along with a Behavioral Care Services team composed of six caregivers, including a psychologist and two psychiatrists.
GCI ConnectMD has worked with LCCH to make great strides in several areas of tele-health, including tele-consultative psychiatry, tele-radiology, and emergency treatment. High speed connections let LCCH staff communicate live with large hospitals in urban areas, enabling patients at LCCH to reap the benefits of these larger facilities while still enjoying the individualized care of a smaller hospital.
The following examples demonstrate how GCI ConnectMD has helped LCCH transform from a once isolated rural hospital to a facility connected with medical experts across the state.
Tele-Consultative Psychiatry
Access to mental specialists in the rural areas of Washington State is difficult; a recent report determined that the state's rural areas have one third the number of psychiatrists found in larger urban areas. LCCH has a special opportunity to provide service to outlying areas in the region and to larger populations further away.
James W. Ethier, MD is a General and Addiction Psychiatrist at Lake Chelan Community Hospital; he was formally a family physician for 17 years before specializing in Psychiatry at John Hopkins University Hospital and University of Maryland Fellowship in Addiction and Psychiatry. Dr. Ethier now treats adolescents and adults in both in-patient and out-patient settings. Through computer-assisted visual presence from the hospital and out-patient facilities, Dr. Ethier would be able to provide essential psychiatric services to populations around the region.
Today, Dr. Ethier can be at either LCCH or the hospital's out-patient office in Wenatchee, where he can assess and prescribe to his patients at either facility. Additionally, these tele-health capabilities enable seasoned psychiatrists such as Dr. Ethier to share their expertise in providing psychiatric consultation with other hospitals in the region, without the need to travel.
Tele-Radiology
A patient was discharged after surgery at Children's Hospital in Seattle, to return home to Chelan. In the immediate postop period, complications developed and the patient was treated at LCCH where x-rays, labs, and other documentation were electronically routed to his surgeon at Children's Hospital for review. The primary medical physician was able to consult with the patient's surgeon for follow up. This connection allowed the patient to stay in the Chelan area and be treated by both his surgeon and his primary medical physician.
Emergency Treatment
A patient was brought into the LCCH emergency room and needed to be shipped to Harbor View due to his traumatic injuries. A LCCH employee was able to transcribe a STAT history and physical at home to be faxed online to Harbor View. The documentation was at Harbor View before the patient arrived, expediting the patient's care.
Most Wired 2010
Lake Chelan Community Hospital was recognized as one of the nation's MOST WIRED—SMALL AND RURAL hospitals, according to the results of the 2010 Most Wired Survey released in Hospitals & Health Networks magazine, the journal of the American Hospital Association. During the last several years, LCCH has adopted technology toward these goals, including collaborative projects like TelePharmacy, TeleRadiology, TeleStroke and TeleHealth education. Efforts by LCCH to implement electronic medical records (EMRs) and computerized physician order entry (CPOE) also contributed to the Most Wired recognition.
"Being named a Most Wired Hospital is truly our Tour de France in healthcare technology," said Ross Hurd, LCCH Chief Information Officer. "As a small independent hospital, we are leading the curve in technology, and we've been able to do it while remaining in the black."
