Syracuse VA Adds Tele-Critical Care to its Advanced Tele-Health Arsenal

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Syracuse VA Medical Center has gone live with a new service that will be utilized at the Medical Center that expands their virtual service technology to include Tele-Critical Care (TeleCC).

TeleCC is an advanced telehealth program that provides remote Intensive Care Unit (ICU) physician and nurse support in the care for ICU patients using virtual technologies and clinical information systems.  “TeleCC is another example of how VA is leveraging advanced technologies to provide the highest quality services to Veterans,” said Syracuse’s Medical Center Director Dr. Frank Pearson.  “This 24 seven 365 virtual care, which augments on site staff, is a testament to the VA’s commitment to our Veterans.”     

TeleCC enhances quality by adding an additional layer of monitoring to standard care, increasing access to intensive care expertise while working collaboratively with the bedside teams. TeleCC services allow for continuous monitoring of Veterans receiving ICU care, even when local providers may be attending or assisting with other critical patients. TeleCC providers can visualize patients with the use of bidirectional audio-visual systems that allow them to be present in a patient’s room in “real time”.

Currently, the Syracuse VA provides over 50 Telehealth services to Veterans through most all providers/departments. Services include Clinical Video Telehealth (CVT), Virtual Video Connect (VVC), and/or Store and Forward (SFT) options. Telehealth options include, but are not limited to services with: Amputees, Audiology, Bariatrics, Cardiology, Chaplain, Dental Diabetes, Dermatology, Endocrinology, ENT. GI, Hepatology, Genomic Medicine, Hematology/Oncology, Orthopedics, Pain, Primary Care, Podiatry, Prosthetics, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Nutrition, Mental Health, Move Program, Pulmonary, Social Work, Sleep Services, Suicide Prevention, Surgery, Rehab Medicine, Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Renal, Rheumatology, TBI, Tele-Retinal, Vascular, Wound Care, Spinal Cord Injury services.

The Syracuse VA is the third New York VA medical center to provide the new TeleCC technology. Buffalo and Albany were the first two New York State Medical Center’s to incorporate TeleCC as part of Veteran care. The new program will be rolled out to other NY VAs within the next 6 months.