Shriners Hospitals for Children Chooses Covenant HealthCare For Launch of Telehealth Location in Saginaw;First in Michigan
Giving local families increased access to their specialists and reduced transportation costs
Officials
with Shriners Hospitals for Children in both Chicago and Cincinnati have
announced a new collaboration with Covenant HealthCare in Saginaw, Michigan to
provide children and local families with increased access to their specialists
at the two pediatric specialty care hospitals.
Shriners
Hospitals for Children and Covenant HealthCare have opened a new telehealth
location in Saginaw providing an opportunity for patients in the Great Lakes
Bay Region and beyond to receive consultations from physicians and caregivers
at both the Chicago and Cincinnati Shriners Hospitals, via new state-of-the-art
telehealth equipment. The equipment is located at a Covenant HealthCare site
allowing the caregivers and physicians of Shriners Hospitals to see patients
and families in Michigan. Shriners Hospitals for Children are known for their
care in orthopaedics, cleft lip and palate, spinal cord injury rehabilitation
and in burns and soft tissue conditions and the Covenant HealthCare location
allows interaction via high-speed internet and HD cameras. In addition, medical
information is transmitted electronically via digital stethoscopes, otoscopes,
dermoscopes, and general exam hand-held cameras providing great detail for
physicians at the Shriners Hospitals.
“Shriners Hospitals for Children are committed to serving patients
and families with more convenient and flexible care,” said Mark Niederpruem,
administrator at Shriners Hospitals for Children — Chicago. “Our hospitals have
been providing telehealth services throughout the country for nearly a decade;
however, this launch marks an advance in technology and the hospital’s agility
in the continually changing delivery models for health care. It also launches
the first telehealth clinic for the Chicago Shriners Hospital.”
As officials at Shriners Hospitals began digging into this project, they felt Covenant Healthcare was the right organization to partner with based on the organization's established telemedicine service through Covenant VirtualCare and its vast array of regional obstetric and pediatric services. As the region's leader in pediatric care, Covenant HealthCare provides quality medical services to children in Michigan's northern lower peninsula and beyond.
The partnership with Covenant HealthCare helps local Elf Khurafeh
Shriners connect local families with the highly specialized care they need,
while helping them save money on transportation costs to the Chicago and
Cincinnati hospitals. These local Shriners raise funds year-round to provide
transportation – via their own purchased vehicles with volunteer drivers – to
families who would otherwise not be able to afford the trip. It is a
cornerstone of the local Shriners’ purpose to connect children in their area
who need the specialized, wrap-around care of Shriners Hospitals for Children.
“The opportunity to help even more children access care they need
in a way that is convenient for families and help the local Shriners use their
dollars effectively was something we wanted to support,” says Jaime Magness,
Program Administrator for Covenant VirtualCare. “Covenant HealthCare is
committed to providing Extraordinary Care for Every Generation and this
is just another way to do so. It is such an honor to be able to serve the
children and families of our community. The smiles and satisfaction
expressed by our patients lets us know that we are making a difference.”
About Shriners Hospitals for Children
The primary mission of Shriners Hospitals for Children is to
help children who need specialized medical care — wherever they may live.
Although our locations are primarily in North America, our compassionate health
care system has treated children from more than 150 countries, and conducts
more than 100 medical outreach clinics outside of the U.S. every year. Our
highly-skilled medical teams treat children with neuromusculoskeletal
conditions, burn injuries and other complex health care needs. To learn more,
please visit www.shrinershospitalsforchildren.org
The new telehealth technology for Shriners Hospitals for Children:
·
Provides
physicians with an easy-to-use telehealth solution to deliver care more
conveniently and efficiently.
·
Improves
Shriners Hospitals’ ability to collaborate with local physicians to make
informed patient care decisions and coordinate care.
·
Enables Shriners
Hospitals to forge new partnerships with local physicians.
·
Improves
quality of life for the patient and families.
·
Enables
opportunities to extend care in rural areas, at outreach clinics and at other
international locations.
About Covenant HealthCare
From moms-to-be to
babies to great-grandfathers, Covenant HealthCare delivers extraordinary care
across generations and across specialties in Michigan’s Great Lakes Bay Region.
Patients can trust Covenant HealthCare with the health needs of the entire
family. With 4800 employees and a medical staff of more than 500
physicians, the Saginaw-based health system offers a broad spectrum of programs
and services including high-risk obstetrics, neonatal and pediatric intensive
care, acute care, a Level II Adult and Pediatric Trauma Center, cardiology,
oncology, orthopaedics, robotic surgery, virtual care and more. For more
information, visit www.covenanthealthcare.com. For more information on
services Covenant provides for kids, visit www.CovenantKidsMI.com.
For more information, please contact:
Tammy M. Robbins
Senior Director
of Public Relations – Central Region
Shriners
Hospitals for Children
trobbins@shrinenet.org
314-341-3726