Remote Neurology Coverage for New England Hospitals
Since 2000, Mass General TeleNeurology has been expanding from a small pilot on Martha’s Vineyard to one of the largest academic TeleNeurology networks in the nation. 6.5 million New Englanders have access to a neurologist through the 35 programs at 23 Mass General TeleNeurology hospitals in their counties. Additionally, Mass General Neurology patients can often conduct their follow up appointments from their homes or workplaces.
- Mass General TeleStroke has increased use of thrombolytics to 9x+ the national average while avoiding unnecessary and costly inter-hospital transfers in 70%+ of consults.
- This suggests more than $6 million in potential reimbursements for community centers.
- More recently, Non-acute TeleNeurology, which is growing at a rapid rate, has allowed 95%+ inpatient retention, again avoiding high cost transfers and keeping care local.
Our remote TeleNeurology clinical services are classified in two groups: those covering the hospital setting and those covering the outpatient setting, such as a primary care practice. Hospital services require dedicated telemedicine endpoints as well as a radiology image transfer technology, and can be Emergent, like TeleStroke, or non Emergent, like inpatient TeleNeurology.
On the other hand, our General and Subspecialty Outpatient TeleNeurology service provides access to primary care practices affiliated with our community hospital members. This service does not require dedicated telemedicine endpoints or radiology transfer connections. It relies on mostly scheduled virtual clinics that minimize the disruption on local primary care provider workflows.
Hospital TeleNeurology
Emergency TeleNeurology: 24/7 access, within 5 minutes to an emergency neurologist. Typical conditions includes stroke, hemorrhage, status epilecticus, comas, chord compressions, Guillain-Barre, acute non-traumatic weakness.
TeleStroke: 24/7 access, within 5 minutes to a stroke specialist.
Routine Hospital Consultation: Business hour access, within the same business day to a general neurologist. Typical conditions include headache, sub-acute stroke, encephalopathy, vertigo, weakness, cognitive changes, seizure, etc.
TeleEEG: Access to remote interpretation of inpatient and outpatient EEG studies during business hours.
Outpatient/Multi-subspecialty
Outpatient TeleNeurology: Business hour access, within the same business day to a general or subspecialty neurologist. We work with you to adapt our resources to your primary care practice’s processes through mutually convenient virtual clinic sessions that minimize the time demand for the local physician, and to enable continuity of care for common chronic diseases, like movement or memory disorders. Typical conditions include headache, sub-acute stroke, encephalopathy, vertigo, weakness, cognitive changes, seizure, etc.