St. Joseph Health System Begins Using RFID In Surgery Rooms and Emerge MD Virtual Clinics for Remote Physician Visits

St. Josephs is very active out here in southern California as I am on their mailing list and they keep me updated. Not too long ago as a shopping mall near my house they had a daVinci robot at the mall and I walked in on just the pack up and tail end of the presentation and it caught me by surprise.

DaVinci Surgical Robot Does a Roadshow At An Orange County Mall

RF Surgical makes products with RFID sensors to make sure sponges and other surgical products are not left inside before the sutures go in. In addition virtual telehealth visits via One Place from Emerge MD has been added. Information about Emerge MD below from the website:

“Leveraging best-in-class technology from companies such as Cisco, Microsoft and Google, OnePlace™ is a web-based telehealth solution that provides a portal for face-to-face interaction between consulting specialists, physicians, and their patients. Communication happens just as it would during an onsite meeting or office exam. Physicians share information, images and charts on the same screen and talk just as if they were in the same room. In a virtual exam, patients share their symptoms and nurses record vital signs while physicians, who may be hundreds of miles away, provide the same care they would in person. In cases when urgent care is needed in remote locations or physicians need to consult with specialists in other parts of the world, OnePlace™ provides instant access to guidance and help.”

I just read on the Emerge MD service to where they provide Remote EEG reviews with a web based service and this takes me back to the Amazon cloud failure and thinking about how important back ups are as there was a system down that provided such services during that time where nothing got through and no relationship here to this company but just something to keep in mind with web based monitoring services. Virtual clinics are good for nursing homes and for seeing those incarcerated when alternative in person visits may not be available immediately. BD

Orange-based St. Joseph Health System plans to use RF Surgical Systems' radio-frequency detection device in its operating rooms in an effort to bolster patient safety throughout its network.
RF Assure Detection Technology finds and prevents retained surgical items (RSIs), such as sponges, gauze or towels, from being left inside a patient after a surgery has been completed. SJHS plans to utilize this new method in conjunction with other measures already in place throughout its system, including manually counting surgical materials.