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THE WEST END NEWS | JUNE 2020
HEALTH & WELLNESS
Leveraging the power of telehealth to benefit the community The pandemic has changed the way we humans connect. Whether it’s online meetings, virtual classrooms, or video happy hours and book clubs, we are finding ways to interact with each other despite social distancing. At Northern Light Health, we have been using technology like this for a limited few clinical applications and system administration for about a decade. It is particularly useful in states like Maine, where people are spread across vast geography and traveling can be a hardship. Prior to March, Northern Light Health was doing a handful of patient visits using telemedicine. In March, the system logged almost 7,500 virtual visits, and in April that number has skyrocketed to 31,000 visits statewide.
Immersion Syndrome—commonly called Trench Foot during World War I,” explains George Stockwell, DO, a Mercy primary care physician. “It is a consequence of having constantly wet feet.” The patient had been using boot liners for shoes, which provide no protection in wet weather.The patient was prescribed some medicine, and several days later the patient was doing much better. He has a new pair of donated shoes, clean and dry socks from the shelter, and special access to the laundry facilities there to be sure he can keep his socks—and his feet—clean and dry.
There are many barriers in providing care to Maine’s homeless population, of which there are about 200 per night in Portland. Their circumstances change rapidly, they move around a lot, and they don’t have a lot of trust. Providing the serIn the Portland area, Northern Light vice in a place that is familiar to them reHome Care & Hospice and Northern moves some of those barriers. Light Mercy Hospital have found a very special way to leverage the power of tele“What was keeping me up at night health. In April, the team there conducted was how we would manage our homeits first telehealth visit in a homeless shel- less population, particularly those who ter. The patient was being monitored for have underlying conditions,” says Kristen Covid-19 exposure, but the nurse noticed Dow, the director of Health and Human he was having trouble walking. “I asked if Services for the City of Portland. “Our I could look at his feet and found he had shelter staff is not medically trained and very significant ulcerations and swelling,” not equipped to manage the surveillance remembers Leann Thayer, RN for Home of guests who are suspected of Covid-19 Care & Hospice. “I got the patient regis- exposure.” tered for services and a primary care docHome Care & Hospice and Mertor saw him via video on my iPhone!” cy Hospital stepped up in a big way, ac“It turned out the patient had Foot cording to Dow. Nurses are staffing four
of the city’s shelters, monitoring guests with suspected exposure, and taking care of other health concerns at the same time. “Our shelter director can’t say enough about these nurses and the way they have interacted with and treated our guests. They seem to know exactly what our guests need and are clearly using some innovative strategies to get the job done,” observes Dow. “As a primary care physician, I’ve been a bit resistant to the idea of telehealth,” says Dr. Stockwell. “But being forced to take advantage of it in this unusual time, we are realizing there’s actually a lot we can do with it. I have found most patients really like it and some patient visits are actually more productive and focused using telehealth. There will always be things that require a face to face assessment, but in the case of this homeless patient, we may have saved him from permanent damage and a need for surgery.”
“As a primary care physician, I’ve been a bit resistant to the idea of telehealth. But being forced to take advantage of it in this unusual time, we are realizing there’s actually a lot we can do with it," says Dr. George Stockwell, a Mercy primary care doctor (pictured above). -Photo courtesy of Northern Light
Mercy Hospital
stone going forward as we begin to reopen services across the state, while working to maintain social distancing for the health and safety of vulnerable patients. It’s easy to use and it is secure. For a rural state like Maine, it may be the silver lining in this “We are beginning to use it for pandemic.This is a technology whose time pre-procedural and follow up visits in car- has come.” diology, rheumatology, gastroenterology, neurology, orthopedics, and even some Content submitted by Northern Light primary care, and I don’t see any reason Mercy Hospital, which has been serving to go back,” said Dr. Ross. “The technolo- the greater Portland community since gy has been a lifeline and will be a corner- 1918. At Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, regional medical information officer Michael Ross, MD, is watching what he predicts is a permanent transformation in healthcare delivery.
