Children’s Hospital & Regional Medical
4800 Sand Point Way NE Project Director
PO Box 5371/Mail Stop T0111
Seattle, Washington 98105-0371
www.seattlechildrens.org

Center Sandy Melzer, MD
Ph: 206-987-2622
Fax: 206-987-5022
Email: sandy.melzer@seattlechildrens.org

Network Partners: Spoke sites include rural and community hospitals, regional outpatient specialty clinics, a pediatric clinic, a juvenile detention facility and related children’s services.

Project Purpose: The purpose of the project is to improve the health of children with chronic conditions who reside in rural and underserved areas of the Pacific Northwest. This will be accomplished primarily through use of telemedicine technology to provide effective and timely access between community- based
providers, patients and their families who are in need of pediatric specialty services and pediatric specialty providers at Children’s. The CHART Program also supports continuing medical education, health education for parents, and care coordination efforts among professionals and families.

Outcomes Expected: The Project will improve access to pediatric specialty care in rural and under-served areas of the Pacific Northwest; promote coordinated care through clinical partnerships that enhance care for children with chronic conditions; provide continuing health education to health care professionals and health education sessions to parents of children with chronic conditions; and work toward Program sustainability. Parent and provider satisfaction questionnaires are used to evaluate telemedicine services. Program growth and service need statistics are documented.

Service Area: The CHART Program uses a telemedicine and video teleconferencing network to link Children’s with 11 regional spokes: in Alaska, at Anchorage; in Washington, at Wenatchee, Olympia, Yakima, Naselle,
Aberdeen, Longview, Bellingham, Kennewick, and Spokane; in Montana, at Missoula; and, in Idaho, at Boise.

Services Provided: Clinical pediatric specialty services include pulmonary, dermatology, endocrinology, neurology and neuro-developmental follow-up services, mental health (including child psychiatry and psychology),
echocardiography and distance learning (including case conferences).

Equipment: Two Polycom FX and 11 MP units, digital cameras, document cameras, LCD projectors with laptop PCs, electronic stethoscope, and a Woods light for dermatology.

Transmission: Clinical video teleconferencing occurs with 3 ISDN lines. Two of the systems have 4 ISDN lines.

Inland Northwest Health Services
157 S. Howard, Suite 500
Spokane, WA 99201
www.inhs.info
www.nwtelehealth.org

Denny Lordan, BS
Ph: 509-232-8121
Fax: 509-232-8357

Network Partners: Northwest Telehealth’s network includes 65 participating sites. TeleER sites include Deaconess Medical Center, Sacred Heart Medical Center, Northwest MedStar, and 12 rural hospitals in Washington State.

Project Purpose: 1) To provide 24/7 access to specialists for consultations between urban trauma centers and rural hospital providers; 2) Provide easy-to-use, fixed video conferencing equipment in rural emergency departments connecting to “virtual beds in trauma centers”; 3) Increase project utilization by providing access to wound care physicians, pediatric emergency physicians, and intensivists in addition to emergency services; 4) Incorporate the availability of shared electronic medical record and imaging capabilities between referring and consulting providers to improve patient outcomes; and 5) To incorporate 3-way video connections between a medical air transport communications center with sending and receiving facilities to improve quality of care and follow up on patient disposition.

Outcomes Expected: 1) Improved patient outcomes by providing timely access to emergency and wound care specialists paired with the ability to visualize patient conditions; 2) Improved utilization of video conferencing equipment located in emergency departments by minimizing the intrusion of technology and procedures in the consultation process; 3) To improve the coordination of care prior to patient transport through an improved visualization of the current condition; and 4) To demonstrate the value of shared electronic medical record data to the clinical consultation process over telehealth.

Service Area: Serving 65 sites within Washington and Idaho, including 23 counties. TeleER project sites serve 7 HPSA/MUAs.

Services Provided: Northwest TeleHealth has been operational since 1997 and provides services in mental health, diabetic patient education, neurology, emergency services, dermatology, wound care, rehabilitation, employee
assistance programs, nutrition, telepharmacy, distance learning, practitioner, and patient education, support groups, satellite downlinks.

Equipment: Polycom video conferencing systems, Polycom bridge, AMD Telemedicine General Exam Cameras.

Transmission: Full T1 and broadband connections between telehealth network sites, ISDN and IP off-network.

Inland Northwest Health Services
157 S. Howard, Suite 500
Spokane, WA 99201
www.inhs.info
www.nwtelehealth.org

Renee LaRocca, BSME, MBA, MEM
Ph: 509-232-8110
Fax: 509-232-8357

Network Partners: Northwest Telehealth’s network includes 65 participating sites. TelePharmacy sites include Sacred Heart Medical Center and 4 rural hospitals in Washington State.

Project Purpose: 1) To develop a Telepharmacy model that utilizes existing technology to provide quality 24-hour pharmacy services with reasonable cost limits to rural health care settings; 2) enhance rural, underserved communities’ safety and well-being by reducing the number of medication errors; 3) address the growing health professional shortage of pharmacists through the use of Telepharmacy; and 4) utilize shared information to drive performance improvement regarding rural pharmacy services.

Outcomes Expected: 1) Rural Hospitals will have continuous pharmacy oversight; 2) Rural hospitals without full time pharmacist coverage will be compliant with the Washington State Board of Pharmacy’s policies; 3)
Increased trust in the medication administration process used in the community’s health care settings; 4) Reduced number of Adverse Drug Events (ADEs); 5) Reduced health care dollars being spent as a result of preventable events; 6) The location of a pharmacist will become less significant; 7)
Improvement of all Telepharmacy hospitals’ medication administration process; 8) The development of common policies, procedures and formularies; and 9) Telepharmacy program demonstrates cost savings, administrative efficiencies, and increased patient safety.

Service Area: Serving 65 sites within Washington and Idaho, including 23 counties. TelePharmacy project sitesserve 4 HPSA/MUAs.

Services Provided: Northwest TeleHealth has been operational since 1997 and provides services in mental health, diabetic patient education, neurology, emergency services, dermatology, wound care, rehabilitation, employee
assistance programs, nutrition, telepharmacy, distance learning, practitioner, and patient education, support groups, satellite downlinks.

Equipment: Polycom video conferencing systems, Polycom bridge, Pyxis Automated Medication Dispensing Systems.

Transmission: Full T1 and broadband connections between telehealth network sites, ISDN and IP off-network.

Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital—Information Systems
2811 Tieton Drive
Yakima, WA 98902
www.yakimamemorialhospital.org

James Aberle
Ph: 509-575-8681
Fax: 509-574-5800
Email:jim.aberle@yvmh.org

Network Partners: Not Applicable.

Project Purpose: Reduce medication administration errors and cycle time to improve patient safety in an acute care environment. The project will emphasize the use of informatics and advanced information technologies such as bar codes, wireless networks and clinical decision support to accomplish these
goals.

Outcomes Expected: Reduce medication administration errors by 50%. Reduce medication administration cycle time by 50%. Reduce the cost of medication errors through the reduction of adverse drug reactions by 50%. Reduce the time to communicate patient medication status at shift change by 50%. Reduce the number of delays between dispensing and administering medications by 50%.

Service Area: Memorial’s primary service area is Yakima County, consisting of 4,296 square miles in Central Washington State. Yakima County is a primary medical care population group HPSA, mental health low income HPSA and full county MUA.

Services Provided: Not Applicable.

Equipment: 180 bedside computers with barcode scanners, Siemens Medication Administration Check system and Cisco wired and wireless network.

Transmission: 100/1000 MB/s switched Ethernet LAN.