Intermountain Healthcare Expands Telehealth Services for Newborn Care

A new telehealth service launched at Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital will extend care provided by providers within its neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) neurology program to more hospital locations, enhancing healthcare for critically ill and injured newborns.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the early years of a child’s life are critical for later health and development, largely because of the speed at which the brain grows during this time.

Thus, in an effort to expand access to neurology care, the organization expanded the outreach of its NICU neurology program. Through this effort, babies who have or are at risk of developing brain anomalies will gain the opportunity to receive a more specialized level of care.

By expanding its neuro NICU service through telehealth, Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital neurologists will be able to monitor babies remotely while recommending treatments for caregivers within four Level III NICUs, three of which are in Utah and one in Billings, Montana. This will enable clinicians to keep babies close to home rather than immediately transfer them. This could also help lower costs due to the reduced need for transportation, the press release noted.

“All the babies in the NICU at Primary Children’s come from other hospitals,” said Betsy Ostrander, MD, a pediatric neurologist with the University of Utah Health and Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital, in a press release. “The Neuro NICU telehealth service allows caregivers at other hospitals to quickly contact neurologists at Primary Children’s when they have questions about the infant’s wellbeing. It helps us quickly assess the patient’s needs, support the clinical team and patient family, and make a smoother transition if the patient needs to be transferred to Primary Children’s for additional care.”  

The remote EEG technology of the neuro NICU also allows neurologists to provide babies with continuous seizure monitoring, similar to the care infants within the Primary Children’s Hospital receive. The press release notes that the use of technology to provide this type of monitoring in Utah as a part of Intermountain telehealth services is new.

Additional benefits of the telehealth service include improving caregiver skills through increased experience.

“Doctors and nurses in NICUs already have a high level of skill because of the complex nature of the babies they treat, and this is another way to expand on what they already know,” said Ostrander.

Intermountain Health and other organizations have previously launched efforts to increase access to pediatric services via telehealth.

In September 2022, Intermountain added new pediatric telehealth services that allow for 24/7 video consult communication between the Primary Children’s Hospital emergency department (ED) and ED physicians systemwide.

By adding this virtually enabled care, the health aims to provide patients with the ability to remain at home while eliminating transfers to Primary Children’s Hospital.

In August 2022, the Children's Hospital of New Orleans began working with Cleveland Clinic to provide access to pediatric radiology experts through telehealth.

Through this collaboration, pediatric and neuro-radiologists from Cleveland Clinic help create exam protocols, interpret images, and provide physician consultation. These services aim to supplement the care provided by pediatric radiology providers at Children’s Hospital of New Orleans and increase access to pediatric radiology services 24/7.