Ochsner Health System, Lousiana’s largest private not-for-profit healthcare system, began its virtual care program, CareConnect 360, in 2009. As it grew, Ochsner wanted higher clarity in audio and visual capabilities to reach new partners in remote places domestically and internationally. Also, they wanted sufficient capacity to increase the size of its network and the number of people it serves by bringing healthcare directly to patients via desktop in their home or on their mobile devices. In short, they wanted to have a flexible telemedicine platform in order to extend the reach of their services.
Vanek Radford, vice president of Ochsner’s CareConnect 360 telemedicine division, chose Vidyo because of its ability to provide clinical quality video in low bandwidth environments. This addressed their objective to deliver health services to rural areas beset with inconsistent connectivity. This could only be achieved with a flexible telemedicine platform.
A Vidyo-enhanced flexible telemedicine platform.
“It took us about a minute and a half to download the software and approximately three weeks to convert across our network of 80-plus locations.” Says Radford about the rapid deployment of Vidyo in their health system.
Vidyo offers physicians the capability to perform video consultations via an iPad or a smartphone. Its former video vendor did not offer this device flexibility.
“When you’re evaluating a patient for acute stroke, time is of the essence,” Dr. Zweifler said. “Having the flexibility with regard to supported devices, so that we can evaluate patients more rapidly, is critical. Time saved is brain saved.”
Since deploying Vidyo, Ochsner has conducted approximately 4,000 virtual care visits in telestroke, acute care, telepsychiatry, and with patients in their homes
With its Vidyo-Enhanced Ochsner Telehealth Program drove 100% Spike in Telestroke Evaluations and a 50% decrease in Length of ER Stays. This result is just one of the many benefits they received thanks to the implementation of an even more flexible telemedicine platform.
“It’s quite amazing for physicians to be at the bedside within seconds where we can often gather medical history from the family members while the patient is getting a CT scan or something. So there’s a lot of work we can do to streamline the very time-sensitive evaluation,” Zweifler said.
Ochsner conducts surveys with the hospital’s partners after Vidyo deployment to assess video and audio quality, the overall implementation, ease of use, and satisfaction from the providers, administrators, and patients. That feedback specifically cited the clarity of the video content and its details, as well as audio factors.
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