Short Circuit

I know things are getting dire when I no longer consider Starbucks coffee to be strong enough. I have to brew my own coffee now...only I would appreciate a full half cup of designer ground beans for my two-cup coffee brewer. That's the realization I had this morning as I lingered over my morning coffee.

[sound of record being scratched by a needle!]

What? I lingered over my coffee? YEP. For a whole 10 minutes. It was only because I had to represent St. Fozzie's at the Muppet corporate Quality meeting today. I was stuck at the hospital last night until almost 8pm CST and drove back to SB with my eyelids propped open with toothpicks.

The Quality meeting was so neat; the system is entertaining the idea of implementing telerobotics in the hospital setting. St. Gonzo's is our system's "hub" hospital for the stroke network we're trying to get off the ground. St. Kermit's and St. Rowlf's both have bids in for the telerobotics program to become "spokes" in the stroke network. St. Fozzie's is also going to apply for stroke designation and may join the system's stroke network. We're just not sure if we want to credential all the necessary physicians at all the Indiana and Illinois hospitals.

The robot reminded of Johnny 5 in the cheesy 80's flick Short Circuit. It was about the height of a human, had a blue base and a flat screen television where the head should be. A programmer from California "beamed in" and assumed the robotic identity. His head filled the screen and the robot made us feel connected to the programmer...because he could reach out its arm, take someone's pulse with the attached stethoscope, look down (the screen pivoted), and even plug it back into the wall by himself. It was eerie, just how human that robot appeared.

The point behind the telerobotics is to allow one super-specialist to reside in Nassau, Bahamas, for instance. We can actually build programs around these super-specialists, even if they are not on site. The telerobotics utilize high-capacity wireless bandwith and despite the geographical distance, there is very little latency. Specialists can easily interact with patients and their families and get this...they can even access the patients' electronic medical records from afar and toggle between the patient encounter and his/her health record. It's amazing and this technology may bridge that gap created by a lack of specialists in every field.

The only weird thing is that CMS (Center for Medicare/Medicaid Services) considers this a 'face to face' encounter and allows the hospital to bill for a full patient encounter. Isn't that bizarre? What's next, drive-through dentistry?