Futura Mobility And Abington Memorial Hospital Partner To Bring Telemedicine Solutions To Area Hospitals

Abington Memorial Hospital (AMH), a provider of Telemedicine services in the Philadelphia region, has teamed up with Futura Mobility, a national leader in mobile technology solutions, to collaborate on the design of mobile telemedicine work stations. Futura is responsible for logistical movement of the telemedicine solution, along with deployment, integration, service and support of the mobile telemedicine carts.

“Abington’s commitment was huge; we needed to back them up technologically so their aggressive plans to grow and innovate were implemented smoothly,” states Futura’s COO Dominic Sambucci.

The Abington Memorial Hospital Telemedicine Service provides suburban hospitals with on-call neurologists for 24/7 coverage of stroke patients at neighboring hospitals. By participating in this service, area hospitals are able to maintain their patient relationships and offer a continuum of care. For Abington, it offers unique growth opportunities for their Neurosciences Institute. Phoenixville Hospital, a 127 bed acute care facility, has been a pioneering partner of AMH’s nationally recognized NeuroInterventional and NeuroCritical Care Services via Telemedicine.

To support the telemedicine software and communication platforms, AMH has made a significant infrastructure investment to include three Tandberg/CISCO Appliances, 10 GB WAN, Rubbermaid Carts with Tandberg HW and a Cisco Wireless backbone. In addition, a program has been launched internally that provides non-English speaking patients with video translators that have access to 126 languages and American Sign Language. Facilitation and access to video translation is a critical service to deliver to Abington’s patients.

“Timely diagnosis and delivery of care leads to better patient outcomes,” states Dr. Lee Harris, chief, Neurology Division, AMH. “Time is Brain.”

Through their advanced technologies, Abington’s opportunity beyond neurology will include other medical specialties such as psychiatric evaluations and legal proceedings with local Courthouses. Their latest initiative is to equip EMTs with telemedicine equipment to assist with the diagnosis and care of possible stroke victims.

Futura’s challenge is to continually enhance the mobile telemedicine stations to keep up with technological and ergonomic advances in video. Futura currently services over 1800 U.S. hospitals (1 of every 3) and over 300,000 mobile devices, making them uniquely qualified for the task.

“When you take on a project as new as telemedicine you not only need great technology, you need a great partner that can keep it performing and up and running,” states Jerry Weltman, manager, Data Center Services at AMH. “Futura makes it all work together.”

“Abington is an exciting client. Their use of technology to improve patient care, extend their reach and improve workflow aligns perfectly with the value of our Mobile Device Management suite,” states Futura Mobility CEO David Gulian. “From onsite technicians that manage the maintenance of their mobile cart fleet through the telemedicine deployments, we are with them every step of the way.”

About Futura Mobility, LLC:
Futura Mobility is a leading enterprise provider of end-to-end mobile technology solutions. Using its proprietary Mobile Managed Services Platform, Futura Mobility currently supports more than 250,000 devices and 2,500 healthcare, enterprise and manufacturing clients across North America. For more information, visit www.futuramobility.com.