Telemedicine Technology extends Queen’s Expertise Statewide

The Queen’s Medical Center uses telemedicine technology to bring needed expertise from its Punchbowl campus to community hospitals throughout the state where specialists may not be immediately available for stroke or other types of specialty care.

The following are highlights of The Queen’s Health Systems’s advancement in telemedicine:

• In 2004, Queen’s was awarded two federal telemedicine grants. Queen’s Neuroscience Institute received a grant to improve acute neurological and neurosurgical care for patients in rural areas and North Hawaii Community Hospital received a grant for telemedicine equipment to improve trauma care.
• In 2014, a telepulmonology clinic at Molokai General Hospital was established and operated by a Queen’s Intensivist.
• In 2011 and 2016, Queen’s received two grants from the Hawaii Department of Health Neurotrauma Special Fund to create a statewide telemedicine network to treat patients with acute stroke symptoms.
• Telestroke services started at Molokai General Hospital in 2011, The Queen’s Medical Center – West Oahu in 2015, and North Hawaii Community Hospital in 2016.
• In 2017, Queen’s Pain & Palliative Care began telemedicine home visits with patients.
• In 2017, intensive care specialists at Queen’s Punchbowl began critical care services for ICU patients at North Hawaii Community Hospital by telemedicine. Daily multidisciplinary rounds are done by telemedicine and vital signs are continually displayed in the Queen’s ICU. The telemedicine technology enables physical examination that includes listening to the patient’s heart and lungs with an electronically connected stethoscope.

With a commitment to improving access to care, Queen’s will continue to find ways to use telemedicine technology to partner with community care providers and extend its expertise statewide to patients in need.