Gov. Corbett Touts LVH Telemedicine, Medicaid Expansion Plan

Written by Wendy Solomon

Using doctors and patients from Lehigh Valley Hospital's telemedicine program as a backdrop, Gov. Tom Corbett made another stop Tuesday as part of his four-day tour across Pennsylvania to tout his Medicaid expansion plan.

Corbett spotlighted LVH's successful, five-year-old telemedicine program, one of only a handful at major hospitals in the state, as an example of his plan's goal to provide access to quality healthcare to Pennsylvanians while lowering costs. LVH's telemedicine program offers care for stroke, burn, infectious disease, high-risk pregnancies and many other conditions.

Telemedicine uses interactive technology that enables physicians and nurses to examine, diagnose and treat patients who are in remote or underserved areas of the state where they do not have access to certain kinds of healthcare expertise.  

Corbett said his plan, called Healthy Pennsylvania, would promote greater use of technology, including telemedicine and electronic records, to help patients in areas of the state that lack specialized medical care. 

Corbett would not specify how much money the program would get but said he plans to apply for federal funding to assist in the expansion of telemedicine and help bring specialty and follow-up care to all Pennsylvanians.

Corbett watched as Doctors Daniel Lozano, chief of surgery and medical director of the burn center, and Luther Rhodes, an infectious disease specialist, examined and diagnosed a patient, role-played by Health Secretary Michael Wolf, who was seated on a hospital bed 50 miles away at Hazleton General Hospital. 

In two difference scenarios, the doctors diagnosed Wolf with a second-degree burn and Lyme disease after viewing realistic images on a computer screen, hearing his heart beat, taking a medical history and talking to his doctor.

Corbett listened as Trudy Singley, a Hazleton General Hospital nurse who had a stroke, and Lehigh Valley Hospital neurologist Dr. Christian Schumacher told her how LVH's TeleStroke program helped save Singley's life.

Rhodes said technology has better enabled him to consult on a patient's complicated medical problem presented to him over the phone. 

"Access is one of the key components of this," Rhodes said.

Although the patient may be miles away in an exam room at another hospital, Rhodes said he can now clearly see the patient close-up on Skype, talk to him or her, access electronic records "and get that magic mix of a doctor, a nurse and a patient at the same time to go over the problem. [It] really does help a great deal.

"We're able to take a history and do a surrogate examination and come to some conclusions. We dictate or transcribe a note directly into that patient's chart on the floor, much as if we had walked in the room."

Joe Tracy, vice president of LVH's Telehealth program, said 90 percent of the 450 long-distance patients who have been seen through the hospital's telemedicine program have been able to stay in their local facility and not travel elsewhere for care.