Banner Churchill CEO helps amend state law allowing specialists to see patients via video

FALLON, Nev., Jan. 16, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Banner Churchill Community Hospital has implemented new technology called Banner iCare™ in Banner Intensive Care Units at the hospital, marking the first technology of its kind in the state of Nevada. This comes courtesy of State Bill (SB) 327, which changed an existing law to allow for physicians to establish a patient relationship "telephonically" or through telehealth capabilities. 

Banner iCare™ in Banner Intensive Care Units teams on-site medical staff with intensive-care specialists who follow patient care from a remote monitoring center located more than 700 miles away at Banner Desert Medical Center in Mesa, Ariz. Specialists at the center in Arizona can monitor patients in Nevada 24-hours a day, seven days a week with the help of audiovisual equipment – cameras, microphones and monitors. This technology provides an extra set of eyes and ears that can pick up the slightest changes in a patient's condition. The program is credited with saving lives and reducing the time patients stay in the ICU.

Before SB327 was amended, Nevada law required physicians to be licensed in Nevada and physically be in the state to see a patient. Early last year, Banner Churchill Community Hospital CEO John D'Angelo testified before the state legislature on behalf of the bill to change rules and regulations so that specialists from outside of Nevada could see and treat patients through this new technology. On Sunday, June 2, 2013, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval approved and signed SB327.

"It's exciting that we're the first hospital in this state to provide this level of technology to our patients," D'Angelo said. "SB327 is going to help us and other health care organizations in Nevada provide exceptional care, especially for those patients living in our rural areas."

Banner Health is the first health care provider in Arizona, Colorado and Nevada to use this technology and it covers 430 ICU patient beds throughout 18 of Banner's 24 hospitals. It's one of the largest programs in the United States. 

Banner Churchill Community Hospital in Fallon, Nev., opened in 1996 and is a part of Banner Health, a nonprofit health care system with 24 hospitals in seven states. It offers acute and primary care, including comprehensive emergency care with an ambulance service that covers more than 5,900 square miles. For more information, visit www.BannerHealth.com/Churchill.

Contact: David Lozano
[email protected]

SOURCE Banner Churchill Community Hospital