Introducing TeleInfectious Disease services at Providence

October 16, 2024

Providence Virtual Care and Digital Health

[8 MIN READ]

Providence has enhanced and expanded patient care by launching TeleInfectious Disease (TeleID) services at Providence Centralia Hospital in Washington.
TeleID clinicians connect with patients remotely to diagnose and treat conditions such as surgical site infections, staph infections, complex bacteremia and sepsis while in the hospital.
Patients benefit from increased access to leading specialists, improved care, fewer hospital transfers and shorter hospital stays. Physicians can offer comprehensive care in broader geographic areas to help more patients.

Introducing TeleInfectious Disease services

Providence continues to enhance and expand patient care by launching TeleInfectious Disease (TeleID) services. Now available at Providence Centralia Hospital in Centralia, Washington, the TeleID program provides on-demand, remote access infectious disease support.

In recognition of Infectious Disease Week in mid-October, here is a closer look at our latest innovative program.

What are TeleID services?

Telemedical infectious disease (ID) services offer patients expanded access to specialty care. These programs are widely in demand due to the nationwide shortage of ID doctors. This particularly affects smaller health systems and medical centers in rural areas and underserved communities.

“Approximately 80% of counties in the U.S. don’t have ID coverage,” says Justin Jin, M.D., MSPH, an infectious disease provider at Providence Infectious Disease Consultants – East. “ID fellowship programs that train new doctors are only half-filled, so we don’t have an adequate pipeline for these vacancies. This telehealth program fills in the gaps.”

The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) endorses telehealth for quality care. Through high-quality, bidirectional audio visits, live consultations can be conducted with patients in the hospital. When needed, physicians can enable additional technology, such as a Bluetooth® stethoscope or exam camera, to examine a patient’s wound in detail.

Telemedicine lets ID specialists remotely provide almost all the services they can do at an in-person visit. They can diagnose, treat and manage infectious diseases such as:

Bacterial, fungal, parasitic and viral infections
Cellulitis
COVID-19
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
Meningitis
Pneumonia
RSV
Sepsis
Staph infections like MRSA and MSSA

TeleID services through Providence

Providence developed its TeleID services program to meet a growing need. “We created this based on a request from our hospitals and physicians to expand coverage to more areas,” says Sarah Ray, senior product manager in virtual care and digital health at Providence.

Currently, the program serves patients who are in the hospital. A doctor can order a consultation for an inpatient in the TeleID portal. Then participating ID specialists are notified and can review the patient’s chart. They work with the patient’s nursing team to arrange a virtual consult.

The hospital has telehealth carts stocked with equipment for these remote exams. This includes high-resolution cameras, Bluetooth® stethoscopes, high-resolution dermatology scopes and more.

Specially trained nurses help the ID specialist assess the patient by performing physical assessments under the direction of the physician, such as auscultation of heart and lung sounds, skin/wound assessments and palpation of the abdomen. The physician can hear the sounds of the heart and lungs and view the skin via the HiDef camera. “We have a robust training program so nurses can perform comprehensive consultative exams,” says Dr. Jin. “This is a best practice for Providence.”

All services and notes for these formal consultations are documented in the patient’s electronic health record (EHR), which is visible to both the admitting hospital staff and TeleID staff. This helps doctors and hospitals deliver the best care.

What’s distinctive about the Providence TeleID services program is that it’s much more than a brief phone consultation. Small hospitals often must reach out to larger hospitals for ID expertise over the phone (known as curbside consults).

“These are not curbside consults. We offer a full array of formalized consultative services for specialty care,” Dr. Jin says. “We’re not simply giving ad hoc advice, which sometimes can get lost in translation.”

Through Providence TeleID services, ID specialists can treat many conditions. In addition to the ones listed above, other common conditions include:

Complex bacteremia
Complex influenza
Infections in immunocompromised patients, like those having chemotherapy
Osteomyelitis
Septic arthritis
Surgical site infections

The TeleID services program provides pharmacy support and is looking to expand its services to provide comprehensive antimicrobial stewardship program support in the future.

A number of Providence ID specialists, as well as some outside the Providence system, have opted to join the rapidly growing Providence TeleID services team. We have a whole panel of ID doctors who are passionate and want to participate in this evolving opportunity in care delivery,” Dr. Jin says.

While the program is currently at Providence Centralia Hospital, other Providence and even non-Providence hospitals that need ID expertise can also contract to use TeleID services.

Benefits of TeleID services

TeleID services have been shown to offer several important benefits to both patients and health care providers.

For patients

In addition to increasing access to ID specialists, TeleID services benefit patients through:

Decreased use of antibiotics: reduces potential side effects and complications
Fewer transfers to different hospitals: increases convenience for patients and families
Improved diagnosis, care and outcomes: includes specialized expertise, faster service and fewer deaths from infections
Reduced risk of health care-acquired infections: helps protect patient health
Shorter length of stay: allows patients in the hospital to go home sooner

For physicians

ID specialists, hospitalists and hospitals also benefit from TeleID services. Here’s how:

Ability to deliver comprehensive care: access to ID specialists helps surgeons and hospitalists provide superior care, especially for complex cases
Equal care: providers in smaller communities can access the same expertise available in larger markets
Expanded reach: telehealth enables ID specialists to treat more patients regardless of their physical location
Work-life balance: ID specialists can practice remotely and more conveniently

“We’re extending the reach of these precious resources beyond where they’re physically located and making our top ID experts available to a much broader area,” Dr. Jin says.

Experience and expertise

Providence has been a leader in virtual care services for more than a decade. “Providence has deep expertise,” Ray says. “We partner with hospitals to deliver high-quality management and integration with their systems and workflows.”

TeleID services is the latest in a series of successful TeleSpecialist Programs Providence has developed to make an increasingly greater impact on patients, communities and health care providers.

“Our goal is to expand TeleID services throughout Providence and beyond, and we anticipate this will happen rapidly,” Dr. Jin says. “There are a lot of future directions to grow this program and make it even better as we discover more. This is just the beginning.”

Contributing caregivers

Justin S. Jin, M.D., MSPH, is an infectious disease provider at Providence Infectious Disease Consultants-East in Portland, Oregon.

Sarah Ray is a senior product manager in virtual care and digital health at Providence in Seattle, Washington.

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