21-05-2025
EARH installs 'virtual emergency room' to expand ER care
May 20—RITZVILLE — East Adams Rural Healthcare rolled out a new telemedicine system last month that officials say will improve emergency room responses dramatically.
"We've used it probably a good dozen times now," said EARH Chief Nursing Officer Lurisa Sackman. "We have had nothing but positive feedback from the staff in regard to the help that it offers them, and no issues or concerns from patients."
The system is called Avel eCare Emergency, and it's a video link between the hospital in Ritzville and a facility in Sioux Falls, S.D., which has on-call physicians and other providers who can talk with the patient and providers, help with diagnosis and take down vital information while the ER staff is doing the hands-on treatment.
"(Patients) come into the ER to be treated, and we still will have our own staff come and assess the patient," Sackman said. "We have two cameras in two different areas (and) we will let them know that we're going to notify this telehealth service for assistance in either documentation or with evaluation and assessment. We push a little red button we call the Easy Button. It rings into Avel, and then they will start the camera and will act as if they're right there with the patient, either doing documentation for our in-person staff or actually assessing the patient if the provider needs assistance or questions with what they're seeing and treating."
The Avel eCare system doesn't replace the doctors, nurses and staff at the hospital, Sackman said. Rather, it provides another set of eyes and ears, and allows them to administer potentially life-saving treatment more quickly.
"When we have a true emergency, we want all of our staff to be hands-on with that patient," Sackman said. "We're going to want that camera there so that ... our patients are being treated by our staff and not sitting at a computer doing the documentation."
"We are there sometimes for two-minute-type questions, or it can be upwards of four-, five-, six-hour calls that we're virtually talking back and forth to one another via a two-way audio-visual connection," said Avel General Manager and Vice President Rebecca VandeKieft.
East Adams Rural Healthcare is a small hospital in a small town, but it serves an area that contains almost 21,000 people. It's also the only hospital between Spokane and Moses Lake, meaning that if a patient can't get what they need there, it's at least a 45-minute drive to the next-closest emergency room. The emergency room at EAHR averages about five or six patients a day, Sackman said.
Avel eCare serves 238 emergency rooms across 15 states, VandeKieft said. Ritzville is Avel's first foray into Washington state emergency care. All Avel eCare physicians, nurses and other professionals are licensed in every state they work in, whether physically or virtually, she added.
Besides benefiting the patient, VandeKieft said Avel eCare has gotten good feedback from providers and hospital staff.
"We definitely do not want to replace (the local team)," she said. "But in staffing shortages, we've noticed that across the nation, it has helped in recruitment and retention of not just providers, but (also) nurses."
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