Video camera/speaker that allows distant site providers and patients to communicate during appointments
New technology at Siskin Children’s Institute will enhance how children with special needs are served in our community. The new real time teleconferencing system, being rolled out this month in the Siskin Center for Developmental Pediatrics, will improve how children and families access care and will utilize distant site partners and providers.
Developmental Pediatrics is recognized as one of the fields with the greatest shortages of pediatric subspecialists, and as such, recruiting Developmental Pediatricians can be especially difficult.
However, the need for these specialists continues to grow as more and more families are referred to the Institute for developmental assessments and testing.
“This new technology will be a huge asset for the Institute as we continue to grow,” said Stephanie Cooper-Wilkes, director of Healthcare Administration at Siskin. “We’re excited to roll this out and begin seeing families for follow up visits and other non-diagnostic needs using teleconferencing format.” Families will continue to see an on-site provider for all initial visits and diagnostic-related appointments.
A Spring City family knows that first-hand as they were the first to take advantage of this technology in early March as they came in for a follow up appointment with Siskin’s Dr. Van Decar. During the visit, Dr. Van Decar was able to interact with the child and his family just as he had done in their previous visit, he was able to simultaneously review patient records and notes taken from the last visit, share growth charts, and other relevant information with the family in real time via the conferencing system.
“This new technology puts Siskin Children’s Institute in an excellent position to serve more children and recruit additional physicians from our region who may not be able to be in the office every day, but can use the telemedicine/telecommunications software to treat families from an off-site location,” said Derek Bullard, president and CEO of the Institute. “We are excited to be able to help more families and hope to increase access to care for families in our rural areas in the coming months.”