U.S. Rep. Kendra Horn tours Mercy telehealth and virtual care program
Posted on: 10/18/19
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Pictured left to right are: Dr. Daniel Pascucci, Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City telehospitalist; Jim Gebhart, president, Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City; Congresswoman Kendra Horn; Dustin Yowell, Mercy virtual director for community integration; Dr. Ariel Lufkin, medical director of telemedicine, Oklahoma; Sandra Harrison, OHA VP of regulatory and legal affairs. |
Last week, Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City hosted a live demonstration of telemedicine for
U.S. Rep. Kendra Horn with Oklahoma City-based hospitalists
Dr. Ariel Lufkin and
Dr. Daniel Pascucci, along with a live demonstration of Mercy Virtual from Chesterfield, Mo. The Mercy Virtual Care Center opened in October 2015. It is the first and only facility of its kind with no inpatient beds. The four-story, 125,000 square-foot building is the cornerstone of Mercy’s virtual care program and serves as a nationally recognized center for developing and delivering telehealth.
The Oklahoma impact of telehealth is to alleviate physician shortages and keep patients closer to home in critical access hospitals. Although 20% of the country’s population live in a rural area, just 10% of physicians work in these communities. Telehealth can improve access to care, particularly for underserved rural parts of our state by expanding the care team and specialists able to care for patients in rural areas. Critical access hospitals are often the second largest employers for these communities and telehealth can help maintain financial viability for them.
(Sandra Harrison)