Lehigh Valley Health Network

New telehealth program offered

Lehigh Valley Health Network now offers the LVHN@Home program. It allows even more patients the ability to recover at home by combining home nurse visits, virtual physician visits and enhanced remote monitoring. It is part of several virtual offerings for LVHN patients including those who have COVID-19.

The hospital adapted its services quickly in March 2020 to provide care during the pandemic. Continuous Ambulatory Remote Engagement Services is a remote patient monitoring program that monitored more than 1,000 patients a day before the pandemic. CARES now monitors more than 1,200 patients daily. Since April 2020, 2,779 people with COVID-19 have received kits for at-home monitoring.

Each person in the program receives a customized kit with tools to record blood oxygen levels and temperature. CARES patients log in to MyLVHN, the LVHN patient portal, to record those data points and answer questions about their symptoms twice a day.

Information is reviewed by a nurse on the LVHN CARES team. If needed, the nurse will reach out to discuss the patient’s condition or provide the information to a physician for further review. This service is available to patients throughout the health network.

Care at home available

When a patient comes to the emergency room, physicians determine next steps in care. If hospital services aren’t needed, but a patient requires care and enhanced monitoring, that can now be done from the comfort of a patient’s own home through LVHN@Home, saving the patient the costs associated with a hospital stay.

LVHN@Home kits include items like a pulse oximeter, blood pressure cuff and thermometer, all with the technology to automatically submit data to LVHN. Patients use these items twice a day. Nurses review each patient’s data and can identify issues to prevent hospitalizations.

A nurse either comes to the patient’s house or meets with the patient virtually each day. Patients also have access to speak with a nurse any time, day or night.

The program began Dec. 23 and enrolls about three to five new patients daily from Lehigh and Northampton counties and select areas in Berks and Carbon counties. LVHN plans to expand LVHN@Home to patients who have other illnesses and conditions, including congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

COVID-19 virtual screening available

During the screening, medical professionals determine if patients should receive testing. Virtual screening options available to people who think they may have COVID-19 include • E-Visits (detailed questionnaire visit submitted to a provider) by visiting MyLVHN.org or the MyLVHN app.

St. Luke’s University Health Network

Automated system schedules COVID-19 appointments

Persons 75 years old or or over and who are registered at St. Luke’s University Health Network may expect an automated call to schedule an appointment for the COVID-19 vaccine. St. Luke’s “Shot-Line” automated scheduling system allows individuals to self-schedule their appointments over the phone.

Existing St. Luke’s patients who have yet to be vaccinated and are eligible according to Pennsylvania Department of Health guidelines will receive a call on the phone number they listed on their St. Luke’s patient records. During the call from 1-866-785-8537, an automated voice recording will ask if they would like to receive the vaccine. If they answer yes, they will undergo a COVID-19 eligibility check, and, if successful, will be given three appointment dates and times at the vaccine site nearest to the location on their record. They select an appointment time, pushing that option number. They will be scheduled within 3 to 4 minutes.

Advanced ultrasound technology arrives

St. Luke’s University Health Network has collaborated with GE Healthcare to acquire and deploy advanced ultrasound technologies.

Through an $11 million investment, 76 ultrasound systems powered by artificial intelligence have been installed at every St. Luke’s hospital campus and dozens of St. Luke’s outpatient sites, standardizing care and increasing efficiencies in radiology, cardiology and vascular services. The installation was completed at the end of 2020.

For more information, visit https://vimeo.com/495578639/195a0a69d3

College students monitor patients remotely

St. Luke’s University Health Network has tapped college students home on break to remotely monitor hospitalized COVID patients using revolutionary medical technology.

Starting in December, a cadre of “virtual monitoring technicians” were stationed 24/7 before digital screens in St. Luke’s Virtual Response Center (VRC), watching patients’ vital signs transmitted via Masimo Patient SafetyNet wireless devices.

In April, St. Luke’s became one of the first health systems worldwide to use the Masimo SafetyNet cloud-based platform to help clinicians care for patients remotely. It comprises a wireless finger sensor to detect oxygen saturation, respiration and heart rate – vital signs that provide doctors and nurses with valuable real-time clinical data that informs treatment decisions.

St. Luke’s received more than 400 applications from students attending schools like Penn State, Kings College, Duquesne and Wilkes. Fourteen have been hired so far, many of them home for the holidays or homebound and taking online classes.

In January, St. Luke’s began monitoring nursing home patients and installed the technology in select patients’ homes, expediting the discharge of patients and freeing up the critically needed beds.

Students working in the VRC included Stephen Botek, Kia Santiago and Skylar Santiago, Penn State University; Briana Huff, St. Vincent College; Savannah Labukas, Moravian College; Steven McCreary, Arcadia University; Lexi Rice, Drexel University; Kylie Rosamalie and Emilia Serafin, Kings College; Kendra Siegfried, Widener University; and Lauren Yeaw, Duquesne University.

COVID doesn’t stop ‘Coats for Kids’

More than 100 area children bought coats, hats and other winter apparel at Target, South Whitehall, thanks to St. Luke’s annual “Coats for Kids” campaign.

Because of COVID-19 concerns, the annual fundraiser was conducted differently from past years.

But it was even more successful, said Marie Ann Sutera-Wendells, marketing events leader.

In late fall 2020, St. Luke’s employees donated more than $14,000 to the campaign.

In past years, volunteers would buy coats, hats, scarves and gloves and set up a “store” at St. Luke’s Education Center, Bethlehem.

They would invite families to come and “shop.”

This year, families were given vouchers so they could buy the children’s winter apparel themselves at the Target in Crest Plaza.

The families bought more than $8,000 worth of apparel in November and December 2020.

The money not spent was given to St. Luke’s Visiting Nurse Association, which purchased additional coats and cold weather gear and distributed it to children who needed it.

Donegan Elementary School, the Salvation Army, Fountain Hill Elementary School, the VNA and H.O.P.E. recommended the children who participated.

“During this difficult time in our history, it is comforting to see the empathy and concern St. Luke’s employees have for such a great cause,” Sutera-Wendells said, adding she is grateful to Target for its participation.