Billings Clinic is Montana’s largest independent health care system serving Montana, Wyoming and the western Dakotas. A not-for-profit organization led by a physician CEO, Billings Clinic is governed by a board of community members, nurses and physicians. Billings Clinic is an integrated multi-specialty group practice with a 336-bed hospital and Level I Trauma Center. Billings Clinic has more than 4,500 employees, including nearly 600 physicians and non-physician providers and advanced practitioners offering more than 80 specialties.

CHALLENGE

Billings Clinic, like many healthcare systems, faced a common problem. With the absence of specialists for small rural hospitals, patients lacked specialized care for oncology, cardiology, and nephrology. Due to the long travel time for patients to reach the main hospital for follow-up appointments, they’d travel to Billings Clinic’s partner hospital site to connect to their doctors.

To ensure patients can attend their follow-up appointments, Billings Clinic realized they needed a new cost-effective telecart that would provide expert-level of care from the specialized doctors for all partner hospital sites. The rollout of a telecart as part of the specialized program hinged on the affordability and usability of the solution.

SOLUTION

Billings Clinic partnered with AVI Systems to implement a telecart solution that solved their need for telehealth patient calls that can be expanded to their partner hospital sites. To best utilize their video conferencing platform, Pexip, they reached out to Avteq to use the TMP-200 telemedicine cart as their cost-effective solution.

With its small footprint and well-designed features, the TMP-200 was the ideal choice for Billings Clinic. The solution includes the Poly Studio R30 accessing Pexip wirelessly. The backup battery provides the needed power for hours-long video calls, doctor patient exams and consultations. In addition, the TMP-200 also provides a sustainable and reliable backbone for future growth and use cases.

RESULTS

The rollout included telecarts installed at partner hospital sites within the Billings Clinic healthcare network. The specialized program allows Billings Clinic to provide critical diagnosis treatment and follow-up consultations for oncology, cardiology, and nephrology.

These carts helped Billings Clinic continue its rapid advancement of specialized care for rural areas and ensured patients will be able to travel conveniently to their appointments. Since the initial rollout, Billings Clinic has been able to assist 12,000 patients with their new telecart solution.

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