SEMBACH KASERNE, Germany -- The Regional Health Command Europe Advancement of Telehealth team has been recognized by U.S. Army Medical Command with the quarterly Wolf Pack Award.
Sponsored by the MEDCOM Civilian Corps, the award is intended to recognize and celebrate successes of teams throughout Army Medicine, and highlights teamwork that drives excellence in outcomes supporting the Army Medicine mission. Eligible teams must consist of a mix of civilian and military team members, and may include contractors.
The telehealth team was recognized for their efforts in establishing and advancing the first hospital-wide "real-time" telehealth platform within MEDCOM. The system for health allows medical, surgical and behavioral health care specialties to provide care through telehealth, according to Col. (Dr.) Kirk Waibel, the RHCE telehealth medical director. With telehealth, patients at remote clinics can interact with Landstuhl Regional Medical Center providers in more than two dozen specialties via a secure video link and using special exam tools and techniques.
"In the past 12 months, this team's efforts have resulted in 2,658 telehealth visits, a 160 percent increase," Waibel said in the award nomination package. "Based on survey feedback, patients want telehealth more than ever with more than 99 percent answering they would use telehealth again as well as recommend it to a friend."
Since telehealth means patients can be seen in their local clinics without having to travel all the way to Landstuhl, the program has also saved Soldiers, beneficiaries and their commanders an estimated 2,050 work or school days, $1.34 million in travel-related expenses, and 825,000 kilometers that didn't have to be travelled, Waibel said.
"It's actually a ballet of coordination with the technical portion, the provider-physician portion, the patient portion, and then all the nuts and bolts that go into it through patient administration, finance, the technical equipment, making sure that the technical equipment is set up with the proper computer uploads, and just all of that technology together," said Ronald Keen, RHCE telehealth Chief. "I think what is so incredible is how our civilian staff and our military staff work together, not only in Landstuhl but regionally with Regional Health Command Europe and Landstuhl as the hub, feeding out to all of the remote locations. It has been just an incredible collaboration effort."
What sets the RHCE telehealth program apart from others in MEDCOM is specialized personnel who were hired to support the program, Keen explained. The team currently includes four specially trained nurses -- with a hiring action in progress to bring a fifth aboard -- who facilitate the long-distance interaction between the patient and the specialty provider. The nurses are currently in place in Germany at the Wiesbaden, Stuttgart, and Vilseck Army Health Clinics; the Vicenza Army Health Center in Italy; and plans are to have one at the SHAPE Army Health Clinic in Belgium soon.
Each of the telehealth nurses undergoes training with the individual specialty providers to understand how to do the examinations involved in their respective practices and to use the equipment needed to perform those exams, Keen explained.
"Those nurses who are specially trained in this, they are an extension of that physician," Keen said. "They are the hands and sometimes the eyes. There is a very unique relationship between the provider-physician and the nurse, making sure that the very best health care possible is provided for that patient."
According to Waibel, this concept of operations has increased overall participation in -- and satisfaction with -- the telehealth program.
Keen said he hopes to continue expanding telehealth to include more clinics as well as the TRICARE Remote population. The team's latest venture is to use telehealth to help shorten the Integrated Disability Evaluation System process and assist providers, Physical Evaluation Board Liaison Officers (PEBLOs) and patients, "…ultimately reducing travel and the amount of time it takes to get the information for the IDES."
He went on to say that he was honored, elated and gratified that such hard working people have been selected for the Wolf Pack Award.
"Everybody is so very proud of this achievement," Keen said. "Also, it's an inspiration to our global telehealth program where we have many, many other telehealth regions and site. When they see an award like this being given, it inspires them."
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