VIDEO: The Arlington, Virginia, fire department is turning to telehealth to help ease the strain on ambulance crews and hospitals.
Starting this month, if paramedics or EMTs in Arlington find that a patient meets certain criteria, the emergency workers will ask whether the patient would like to bring in a medical provider via an iPad. On the other end is a doctor, physician assistant or nurse practitioner.
“I can say to them, ‘Can you show me this wound? Move the ankle this way. Push on their belly’,” said Dr. E. Reed Smith, the operational medical director for Arlington County’s fire and police departments. The telehealth visits are an alternative to a costly and time-consuming ambulance ride to the emergency room.