SeeMyRadiology.com Helps Orlando Regional Medical Center Enhance Trauma Consults and Transfers with Real-Time Image Access
When two critically injured children recently received the surgical care that saved their lives, they were treated by not one, but two skilled surgical teams simultaneously -- in locations 100 miles apart. One team at a hospital near the scene of their near-fatal automobile accident provided hands-on intervention. At the same time, the second team, made up of pediatric trauma surgeons at a distant specialized facility, contributed virtual guidance that helped save one youngster’s life and prepared the other for transfer to its Level I operating room (OR). There, in the middle of the night, the second sibling received advanced care by a hand-picked team of pediatric traumatologists, who were ready to deliver treatment, surgical plan in hand, the moment the patient arrived.
The crucial step that enabled this level of advanced care? Immediately after acquisition, the medical images arrived at the remote hospital, well in advance of any patient.
Thanks to Accelarad's innovative SeeMyRadiology.com, a cloud computing platform that enables real-time image sharing in full diagnostic resolution over the Internet, surgeons at Orlando Health’s Arnold Palmer Level I Pediatric Trauma Center were able to evaluate the cases, accurately gauge each patient’s condition, triage the injuries and consult on treatment. Orlando Health was able to bring together the necessary treatment team and even prep the OR before the second patient’s arrival. This particular case was made even more difficult because extreme weather conditions prevented the injured patients to be flown to the Orlando facility by helicopter as the specialists would otherwise have recommended.
“For complex trauma transfer cases such as this, almost every doctor would agree you can fax all sorts of medical records, but a picture truly is worth a thousand words. Correctly assessing a patient’s condition and planning appropriate treatment can best be accomplished with the aid of medical imaging,” says Tim Bullard, MD, Chief Medical Officer for Orlando Regional Medical Center (ORMC), the counterpart of Arnold Palmer for Orlando’s adult patients. “While trauma centers make the most of available information, without image access, they simply have to fill in a few dots. Naturally, that impacts patient care and also has implications for the allocation of resources within the hospital overall.”
In 2008, with the belief that technological advances had opened new paths to immediate image communication, ORMC decided to seek out an unconventional solution to the long-standing problem, and the hospital's trauma care took a dramatic step forward as a result of what they found.
ORMC - BACKGROUND
The flagship facility of the Orlando Health network, Orlando Regional Medical Center and its pediatric counterpart, Arnold Palmer Hospital, are central Florida’s only Level I trauma centers, caring for the area’s most critically ill patients. The 808-bed tertiary medical facilities are recognized for their preeminent medical staff, advanced technology and commitment to delivering the highest level of care.
Orlando Health comprises six additional facilities that share images through a common PACS environment. ORMC’s landing pads, however, are busy around the clock bringing trauma transfers from about 10 hospitals beyond the Orlando Health network. Some patients are transferred from rural hospitals, while others from larger community hospitals. But none of these sites have the 24/7 access to advanced specialists and technologies available at ORMC. Particularly for complex cases involving neurosurgery, cardiology, orthopedics and plastic surgery, surrounding hospitals look to ORMC to provide patients with the highest standard of care.
