Small, rural hospital continues to break new ground with state-of-the-art technology and award-winning patient care.
In the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), every second counts, no matter the hour or the day. Now, thanks to technology and partnerships, life-saving critical care is only the push of a button away for patients in our local ICU.
On May 6, Hampton Regional Medical Center (HRMC) cut the ribbon on its new Tele-ICU Unit. Through a partnership with the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) Health and Hicuity Health, HRMC is now able to provide advanced intensive care around the clock through the use of telemedicine technology.
Faced with challenges that include remote locations and a shortage of specialists and intensive healthcare providers, many rural hospitals are turning more and more to virtual tele-health to provide quality care for their rural populations, and HRMC has fully embraced this concept.
“We can now keep patients closer to home, with their families near, and still provide the critical care they need,” said Cam Ulmer, a Registered Nurse who helps oversee the program. “It has been a blessing for this hospital, and for the whole community. Just having the support of an Intensivist is huge.”
Located inside the hospital’s five-bed Intensive Care Unit are two fully equipped Hicuity Health rooms, complete with high-resolution cameras and monitors to enable healthcare providers at the bedside to communicate directly with advanced specialists that may be on the other side of the continent. For small hospitals that can’t afford to keep an Intensivist on staff, this technology will make it possible to keep sicker patients locally for longer.
Source: Augusta Chronicle
