Virtual medicine is changing the way physicians treat patients in Wyoming.
The expansion of telehealth also offers new opportunities to bridge the state's gaps in care. Patients who must leave rural communities to see a specialist will soon be able to find this expertise at home.
Today, 24 of Wyoming's 26 hospitals are outfitted with videoconferencing equipment, Dr. James Bush, chairman of the Wyoming Telehealth Consortium and Medicaid director for the Wyoming Department of Health, said.
He added that the goal is to expand the coordinated network into physicians' offices and community health centers, as well as connect every medical specialty with the electronic system.
"Wyoming is custom-made for (telehealth)," Bush said.
This past week, he updated members of the Joint Labor, Health and Social Services Interim Committee on Wyoming's progress to expand telemedicine. The consortium began meeting last summer to develop a user-friendly statewide network.
Bush said a coordinated system allows hospitals across the state to "talk" to each other, while an easy-to-use setup ensures physicians don't need to be technology experts to make a virtual call.
"It has to be as simple as clicking a name on your computer," he added.
Doctors and nurses are now getting 7,000 to 10,000 minutes worth of continuing education each month through telehealth systems in Casper and Cheyenne.
Certification and training sessions will be offered for emergency medical services later this year, Bush said.
Meanwhile, patients are benefiting from telehealth for primary care and chronic disease management. He added that hospitals also are pilot-testing telehealth programs with psychiatrists and cardiologists.
Kevin Bohnenblust, executive director of the Wyoming Board of Medicine, said state lawmakers streamlined the licensing process to encourage more physicians to practice in Wyoming.
Today, more than 250 of the state's 1,200 doctors are serving patients through telehealth. But the board doesn't differentiate between these groups when issuing a license.
"We expect the same level of care, whether the physician is face-to-face or over the Internet," he added.
Bush said the Legislature agreed to spend $235,000 to continue the efforts of the Wyoming Telehealth Consortium through 2011. It is estimated that an expanded telehealth system will cost $1.5 million each year.
But the electronic network could pay for itself if more patients stay in Wyoming to get care, he added.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Michelle Dynes
Quelle/Source: Tribune Online, 02.06.2010
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