Charleston Area Medical Center Establishes New Service in Marlinton

There is a brand-new medical service in Pocahontas County which allows patients to be examined and treated by a specialist physician who is located at the Charleston Area Medical Center, (CAMC,) without having to leave Pocahontas County, much less have to travel to Charleston.

Pocahontas Memorial Hospital’s Pulmonology Clinic,

To learn more about this, we spoke with Abby McClanahan, a CAMC Registered Nurse, who lives here in the county and works for the new CAMC Telemedicine Center located in the Pocahontas Memorial Hospital’s Pulmonology Clinic, and asked her to tell us about the Telemedicine Center.

“I work with CAMC’s Telemedicine I Pocahontas (County.)” said McClanahan. “CAMC, or Charleston Area Medical Center, has a Telemedicine Center here in Pocahontas, which allows residents in the surrounding areas to see their specialists closer to home. Now, with this kind of resource, they don’t have to travel clear to Charleston, it allows us to deliver care closer to home so they can see their specialist here in our center. We can do vital signs; lab work; imaging. They get the same kind of care they would receive in Charleston, but without the long drive, without having to take as much time off of work.”

“We offer over 40 specialties for their providers and their patients. They are able to see their specialist through our telemedicine with a secure video log, instead of having to travel to Charleston. So, it is nice bringing care close to home.”

Abby, can specialists not associated with CAMC be seen through this service?

“These are providers through CAMC,” replied McClanahan. “And we have physicians that participate with this. We also have nurse practitioners and physician assistants along with the doctors, who can see the patients too.”

Would a patient need a referral from their primary care doctor to use your center?

“Their doctor or nurse practitioner will place a referral, and then send that to me through fax, or they can call our center here,” said McClanahan. “And, we have the phone and fax information available on our website. That is CAMC.org\telemedicine. At that site they can see all of our current telemedicine centers that we have, as well as contact information with phone, fax and map & directions. Currently we have CAMC Telemedicine in Pocahontas; We also have facilities in Lewisburg, and in Jackson County in Ripley. There’s one in Summersville and Princeton as well.”

Let’s assume I was a patient of a specialist at CAMC that got referred to you. Can you walk me through what would happen?

“Sure,” McClanahan said. “So, upon getting your referral, I would call you on the phone to do what we call a pre-planning worksheet, or kind of an intake form, where we talk to you about your symptoms, the reason for the referral, your medications, your history, any surgeries you’ve had, pre-existing conditions you have, or anything like that. I would ask you, of course, if you are interested in the referral, making sure you do want to come, making sure you knew your provider placed the referral and why. We always want to have the patients informed and keep them involved in their care and explain the process. We pick a date and time that works for the patient, as well the provider, so they can be seen when it is convenient for them. And on the day of your appointment, you show up here. We get you registered and check you in; go through all your insurance information with you; and we would have you sign some consent forms; and, go through a full set of vital signs – check your blood pressure and heart rate and all those things; and then, depending on your specialist, if you need EKG’s or pictures of your heart, X-rays, things like that, we can get that done. And then we have you connect with our Camera Doc connecting camera two. So, you can see your provider, and they can see you too in real time. We are able to do heart signs, breath sounds, check your pulse, and other assessments. -specialties too- in real time so your provider can see you in Charleston while you are here in Buckeye.”

CAMC Exam Room at PMH

You showed me the room, it is almost like the exam room at the provider’s office.

“Right, it does have a lot of the same things,” McClanahan said. “Anything that you would need that we don’t have physically here, we could send you to Pocahontas Memorial Hospital next door for that.”

Now, you’re a registered nurse and you would be with the patient so if the doctor asks for something to be done you could take care of it?

“The whole time, yea (we’re with them) from start to finish. We check the patients in, remain for the duration of the appointment, help them check out, and on their way.”

Is there anything else you would like to add?

“It’s a newer program,” said McClanahan. “It’s definitely a newer location here, and we are excited for all we can offer for Pocahontas. Some big ones that we have a lot of patients for are: Cardiology; we do a lot of Endocrinology and Diabetes specialty; Gastroenterology; we do some weight loss clinic; Neurology; and of course we are in the Pulmonology Building, so of course, a lot of patients will be seen through Pulmonology here. Rheumatology is anther big one that we do as well. We have 46 -I believe that was the last count -specialties we can do here.

Thanks, Abby. I am sure a lot of Pocahontas Residents can benefit from this new Telemedicine Center, which just opened on January 23^rd.