Mon Health brings telemedicine to rural West Virginia

People living in rural areas of West Virginia face any number of obstacles to receiving medical care from a specialist. The lack of reliable transportation, gas money, bad weather or just the long drive can be an obstruction to health care.

At Mon Health, technology is removing the roadblock for the state’s rural residents. Mon Health has implemented a telemedicine project that connects its highly-trained medical professionals in Morgantown by computer with seven rural access sites in central and eastern West Virginia.

“This allows us to provide the same great service that people receive at Mon General Hospital to the rural communities of West Virginia,” said Eric Eberhart, Director of Telemedicine at Mon General Hospital. “Technology has improved for virtual consultations to the point where both patients and doctors feel they can have a good experience.”

Webster County Memorial Hospital in Webster Springs, WV, was the first rural site that Mon General’s physicians actually saw patients via telemedicine. Other project sites include Preston Memorial Hospital in Kingwood, Grafton City Hospital in Grafton, Davis Memorial Hospital in Elkins, Cortland Acres Long-Term Care in Thomas, Broaddus Hospital in Philippi and Mansfield Place Long-Term Care in Philippi.

Each of the rural sites is equipped with a telemedicine cart, which includes a laptop computer and digital stethoscope, dermatoscope (for viewing skin) and otoscope (for nose, ear and throat exams). A high definition camera allows the physician to see the patient and can also be used to zoom in and view EKGs and other telemetry live.

On the physician side, all that is needed is a computer, with a camera and microphone. “The physician runs the visit basically like any other normal office visit,” Eberhart said. “The patient and physician have a real time conversation and can see each other.”

Currently, consultations in cardiology, infectious disease and wound care are available through the telemedicine program. More specialties are expected to be added to the program in the near future.

The telemedicine exam takes place at one of the seven access sites, with a nurse or physician assistant present with the patient. “The doctor directs the nurse or physician assistant as to what he or she wants done,” Eberhart said. Any tests needed are performed at the rural hospital and results are sent to the physician.

“Telemedicine is ideal for the state of West Virginia,” said Dino Delaportas, MD, who provides infectious disease and wound care consultations. “Instead of patients coming to us, we can go remotely to the patient.

"The equipment is excellent, to the point I feel very comfortable doing this,” Dr. Delaportas said. “The patients see me. I see them. The camera can zoom in on areas of the body. It’s almost as good as seeing it live.

“Telemedicine doesn’t take the place of putting your hand on the patient, but you certainly can make a very good evaluation,” he said.

The program is also having an impact at Webster County Memorial Hospital.

“The telemedicine program has been an exciting new addition to our very rural hospital,” said Cari Durham, RN, in the Outpatient Nursing Department at Webster County Memorial Hospital. “To be able to provide specialty services to our patients, that otherwise would never have been possible, is just fantastic.

“Our patients are very pleased with the telemedicine program, as well as our staff,” Durham said. “For many, it is just too hard to travel two to three hours to see a specialist and therefore they will not go.

“We are now able to provide those services right here at home, and these patients are beyond grateful,” she said. “One of my patients stated ‘This is so neat.’ She couldn’t believe she had just seen a specialist without having to travel.”

For some patients the telemedicine program is the difference between seeing a cardiologist or not seeing a cardiologist. One of the first telemedicine patients at Webster County Memorial Hospital had been told repeatedly for several years that he needed to be seen by a cardiologist. He did not want to leave his home area to travel to Morgantown.

“Five of our patients said they would not have agreed to see a cardiologist if they would have had to travel,” said Lauren Smith, LRTC, Manager of Respiratory Care and Nuclear Medicine at Webster County Memorial. “They are thankful to now have this service close to home.”

The program also has other benefits for rural hospitals. Since April, Webster County Memorial has had 19 cardiology visits through the telemedicine program.

“This has increased our lab, stress testing and Echo procedures,” Smith said. “Telemedicine has improved our quality of patient care by having access to a board certified cardiologist and also increased our revenue with added procedures.”

“Working with a doctor via a computer screen has been quite different, but I’m getting used to it,” Durham said. “We are just so thankful Mon Health has chosen us as a telemedicine site so that we may better serve our patients.”

The nearly $750,000 investment has been a few years in the making and there were a few challenges along the way, such as setting up secure internet connections.

“We are now seeing the effort to initiate this program was well worth it,” Eberhart said.

The ultimate goal of the project is to increase access to quality health care in rural areas of West Virginia. Telemedicine connects Mon General’s physicians with practitioners in more rural facilities, providing the most up-to-date clinical support and expertise available.

“We’re helping rural hospitals provide a whole new level of service they can’t do on their own,” Eberhart said. “It’s almost like they have a cardiologist or other specialist that’s moved to their hospital.”