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A New Observer at Pomerado Hospital |
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A new set of eyes are keeping watch over Pomerado Hospital's Intensive Care Unit and Emergency Department in Escondido, CA. These eyes are actually an RP-7® Robot, which Palomar Pomerado Health physicians are able to keep watch on their patients from afar. Physicians are using their robot, which they have named Iris, for teaching rounds and checking in on their patients when they are away from the hospital.
Dr. Benjamin Kanter believes that the importance for physicians to interact with patients from afar will increase as the population expands, and the number of medical specialists decline. "There are many areas of the United States that are underserved, and have no access to state-of-the-art services," says Dr. Kanter. "For example, only a third or so of the ICU patients in the United States are able to obtain care from physicians trained in critical care." The nursing staff at Palmorado Hospital have accepted Iris. "We can communicate with doctors in real time, and they can see what we're talking about...there's alot to be said to see the expression on a nurse's, patient's, or family member's face, rather than to hear a voice on the phone," said one nurse Maria Sudak, RN, MSN, CCRN.  Dr. Benjamin Kanter visiting a patient in the ICU Image courtesy of Momentum Magazine |
