Improving Patient Outcomes- The Telehealth Way

Telehealth Nurse Jamie Alexander was following trends on one of her patients at one of the hospitals she was assigned. She saw something of note and called the bedside RN. Upon reaching the RN via Vocera, you could hear a mild sense of panic/frustration from our bedside colleague. She proceeded to give her warm hello and asked if the RN had a moment to discuss a patient and proceeded to discuss her concerns and ask the RN direct questions so she could quickly get a better picture of the patient. When the conversation ended, she could tell the RN had other matters to tend to.

She asked if there was anything else she could do for this RN. After a moment the RN said she really needed to find out if her other patient had their daily dose of Digoxin. The patient had come from a rehab facility and the complete patient history documentation was still unavailable and the RN was concerned about her patient's daily scheduled dose. Without a blink of an eye, this Telehealth RN asked what facility the patient came from and told the RN to hold on just a moment and that she would call her back quickly. She used her resources including her HUC and internet access to search the facility and contacted them, spoke to the appropriate clinician, and obtained the medication dose and last time the medication was given. Within less than 2 min, information was gathered; confirmed; and delivered back to the bedside RN. The patient had not received his dose and the bedside nurse rectified the situation and provided the excellent patient care that our patients deserve when they are in a Banner hospital.

It was special to see how Jamie was able to directly impact patient care and patient outcomes as a Telehealth nurse remotely located from the patient. Jamie would say she was just doing her job and "helping out", but really it showed how big her compassion is and how she genuinely cares for our patients.