Fort Detrick, MARYLAND – The U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command’s (USAMRDC) Telemedicine and Advance Technology Research Center (TATRC) and Vermont Hospital and Health System Association (VAHHS) are collaborating to make the National Emergency Tele-Critical Care Network (NETCCN) available to hospitals across Vermont.
NETCCN consists of networks of critical care clinicians and providers that can deliver virtual care “from anywhere to anywhere” through use of secure, smartphone-based telemedicine platforms. Through NETCCN “apps,” supported hospitals across Vermont can request and receive on-demand, 24/7 virtual assistance from critical care physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists and other specialty clinicians.
“NETCCN addresses a fundamental challenge for our healthcare system during disasters like COVID-19 surges: enabling easy communication between those working outside of their comfort zone or scope of practice and clinical expertise at the right place and time to affect best possible outcomes. This is especially true for the care of severely-ill patients needing intensive care level support but who may not have access to an intensive care unit due to patient volume or lack of available transport,” said Col. Jeremy Pamplin, TATRC’s Commander and an intensive care physician. “In contrast to patients dying from hospitals’ inability to provide hemodialysis, NETCCN has responded to calls for support within hours to help a small hospital unable to transfer patients to a referral center provide this life saving therapy.”
VAHHS has rapidly brought together healthcare leaders from across the state to raise awareness, coordinate and streamline availability of NETCCN for Vermont’s hospitals. VAHHS’s assistance in harmonizing licensure rules and credentialing processes accelerated availability of NETCCN and reduced burden on its member healthcare organizations.
“Many of Vermont’s hospitals don’t have Intensive Care Units (ICUs), so they don’t have the critical care experts needed to care for our sickest COVID patients. During normal operations, we are able to transfer patients to referral centers with this capability, but during surges, those hospitals are full and unable to accept additional patients. NETCCN brings instant access to experts through an easy-to-use and secure platform, allowing our smaller hospitals to optimize care for these severely ill patients until transfer is possible. Perhaps just as important, access to these experts relieves the stress and anxiety felt by clinicians in our small hospitals by helping them know they have done the best possible for their patients, even when the outcome may not be ideal,” said Devon Green, Vice President of Government Relations, Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems (VAHHS).
NETCCN is presently live in 4 hospitals in Vermont with additional hospitals scheduled to go live next week.
NETCCN is available at no cost to supported hospitals and healthcare. Through the pandemic, NETCCN has delivered over 5,000 patient-days of care to over 40 hospitals in 13 states and territories.
