North Mississippi Health Services has upgraded the wired and wireless networks at all six of its community hospitals to enhance care for COVID-19 and other patients, thanks to CARES Act Provider Relief Funds from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. North Mississippi Health Services includes North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo and community hospitals in Amory, Eupora, Iuka, Pontotoc and West Point, Mississippi, and Hamilton, Ala. “All of our community hospitals have now been updated to state-of-the-art equipment,” said Benton Kilman, M.D., NMHS interim chief information officer. “This upgrade advances our ability to deliver high-quality audio video communication, improving the experience for both COVID-19 patients, as well as all other patients we serve.” The project, which totaled more than $2.5 million, will enable the community hospitals to: • Reduce the use of personal protective equipment. When it is not necessary for the nurse to enter a COVID-19 patient’s room, he or she can communicate via video with the patient from the nurses’ desk or hallway. This limits the use of PPE, which has been in short supply during the pandemic. Both the patient and the nurse have a robust audio-video experience. • Provide specialty consultation. Patients who are less acutely ill with COVID-19 can remain at community hospitals rather than being transferred to NMMC in Tupelo. The doctors caring for them can consult through video telehealth with specialists (such as pulmonologists, cardiologists, nephrologists and others). • Enhance the quality and dependability of ER-to-ER video consultation. This technology will enhance collaboration among providers in Tupelo and community hospitals to improve access to health care providers throughout our region and avoid unnecessary transports. • Provide routine rounding. Hospitalists at NMMC hospitals can make virtual rounds on COVID-19 patients to enhance access to physicians where and when needed. • Provide specialty consultation into the nursing homes. To limit exposure of nursing home residents to COVID-19 and other transmissible illnesses, patients can have video visits with their health care provider. NMHS’ Information Technology Services staff has worked on an unprecedented timeline to complete the upgrades and installation of video devices in a record two months. The last hospital upgrade was completed Sept. 30. Nurses and physicians are now being trained in the use of the telehealth technology. “We are excited about being able to provide integrated specialty care at the bedside in all patient care areas,” said Robin Mixon, administrator of NMMC-Eupora. While the technology is geared toward COVID-19 patients, others will benefit as well. “Through this technology, patients at our community hospitals can receive consultations with specialists just as if they were in Tupelo,” Dr. Kilman said. "It has been wonderful to see the excitement in the staff at the community hospitals knowing that they will be able to improve patient care through this new technology."
