Hospital Authority presents Daisy Award, has telemedicine demonstration

Published 4:53 pm Wednesday, January 25, 2023

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The Memorial Hospital and Manor Authority board met for their monthly meeting on last Tuesday afternoon. The first item on the agenda was the presentation of a Daisy Award to nurse Oleatha Kegler, who works in Memorial’s Labor and Delivery department.

After the award presentation, the board members were given a demonstration of the new telemedicine set-up that has been installed in the E-ICU. Memorial received a grant from the Georgia Department of Community Health amounting to $450,000 per year for three years for this set-up, which will allow Emory nurses and physicians to aid in monitoring patients.

“The nurses are constantly monitoring in real-time,” hospital CEO Jim Lambert said. “So the patients are on the monitor and if they detect something, they’ll call the nurses on-site. Or if the nurse is in the room, they’ll call on this and interact with the patient or the family.” He referred to the screen in the room, part of the telemedicine set-up. “They can do consults, they can have a patient-family meeting with doctors and nurses at Emory.

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The board was given a demonstration, having a brief conversation with a critical care nurse at Emory. Emory nurses and physicians will have access to all the patient’s charts, and will receive notifications about abnormalities in the patient’s vitals. The program went live in December and the hospital is excited for the positive impact it will bring.

“We’re excited to get this going,” Lambert said. “I think it’s a good thing for the community, and for our patients.”