Embracing Future Healthcare Trends
As featured in the Bronx Times
The future of emergency medicine has arrived in the Bronx.
Beth Abraham Center installed Call9, a new telemedicine technology, on Thursday, September 7.
The state-of-the-art technology delivers bedside emergency care to patients in nursing homes and rehabilitation centers, serving as a replacement for 911 by staffing on-site 24/7 emergency-trained clinic care specialists.
Serving as a first responder, the CCS taps the Call9 app and is immediately connected to an emergency physician.
Within minutes, the patient is seen by a remote doctor via a video screen who can diagnose and direct care to the patient via the CCS’ hands.
The doctor can also view the patient’s vitals which are streamed to the doctor’s laptop via Call9.
Bedside labs, EKG, telemetry and real-time ultrasound allow the CCS to perform more in-depth diagnostics while the Emergency Medicine physician’s help ensures patients are only sent to the hospital if absolutely necessary.
Approximately 80% of patients Call9 sees are able to stay in their nursing home or rehab bed avoiding physically taxing and costly trips to the emergency department.
Since CCSs are in the facility around the clock, Call9 replaces emergency room visits and subsequent hospitalizations which are often extremely difficult on patients and burdensome on their families.
Beth Abraham Center is Call9’s first and currently only facility in the Bronx.
Call9’s model is to establish a flagship in each of the five boroughs and each county throughout lower NYS with plans of expansion to other areas of New York and other states.
Two weeks after launching at Beth Abraham, Call9 has since expanded into Centers Health Care’s Northern Manor Multi-Care Center in Nanuet, NY.
Moshe Blackstein, licensed nursing home administrator at Beth Abraham, said the center’s Call9 serves all 448 patients.
\"Call9 has been very beneficial in that it gives us another level of medical care that we can provide our residents,\" expressed Blackstein.
This past March, Centers Health Care acquired the 90-year-old Beth Abraham Health Services facility at 612 Allerton Avenue which it renamed Beth Abraham Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing.
With over 30 years of experience, geriatric medicine physician Dr. Anthony Vela expressed excitement over Call9’s potential.
\"Call9 advances the medical field by serving as a buffer whenever the primary care physician is unsure of sending a patient to the hospital,\" stated Dr. Vela.
He added Call9 provides patients a rapid comprehensive assessment from doctors who may be out of state or out of the country during such medical emergencies.
Call9 allows for instant communication for any of Beth Abraham’s seven emergency medicine providers to directly call or text primary care physicians.
For additional information, visit www.call9.com.
