| Jan. 7, 2005
Sault Ste. Marie patient thankful
for MGHS Heart Program, telehealth services
Recuperating
from successful bypass heart surgery performed at Marquette General
Hospital, 82-year-old Jean Marchetti
of Sault Ste. Marie has nothing but kind words for cardiovascular-thoracic
surgeon Dr.
Doug Baldwin and the MGH heart program.
Jean Marchetti of Sault Ste. Marie chats with Marquette General Hospital
cardiovascular-thoracic surgeon Dr. Doug Baldwin via a telehealth hookup
at the Bay Mills Health Center in Brimley. |
 |
Knowing she would
need bypass surgery, Marchetti and her daughter, Mary Elliott, had
contemplated several different hospitals to explore
surgical options. Unable
to find what she was looking for, Elliott called the Heart Line at the
Upper Michigan Heart
Institute at Marquette General Hospital.
“Although she’s retired, my mother and I are both nurses. She entrusted
me with the decision of picking the surgeon.” Elliott said. “By
the sure direction of a higher power, I contacted the Director of the Heart
Institute
at Marquette General. From the first person I talked to at MGH to the last,
I was treated like a human being.
“I have never met a surgeon like Dr. Baldwin and his great, attentive team.
He talked with me, he listened, and I liked that,” Elliott continued. “The
treatment at MGH was VIP all the way.”
Marchetti said she was thoroughly pleased with Dr. Baldwin’s surgical
skills and follow-up care.
“I have never met a doctor with such compassion and ability,” said
Marchetti of Dr. Baldwin, a member of Upper Michigan Cardiovascular Associates,
P.C, of Marquette and on staff at Marquette General Hospital. “I
remember not doing so well, and Dr. Baldwin actually called in the middle
of the night
to check on me. I could just hug him every time I see him.”
Fortunately for Marchetti, she’s able to have follow-up visits with
Dr. Baldwin without ever leaving her hometown. The Upper
Peninsula Telehealth Network allows physicians and patients to conduct patient visits over great distances.
Marquette General serves as the hub of the 28-site network.
“I have degenerative back pain,” Marchetti said. “I think telehealth
is wonderful because it saves me all that traveling.”
Marchetti drives to a nearby clinic at Bay Mills Health Center in Brimley
and sits comfortably in front of a monitor while watching and talking with
Dr.
Baldwin. Marchetti, who would otherwise have made a six hour round trip
to Marquette under the care of her daughter, now sits in a car for less than
a half hour each way.
Elliott, a registered nurse, helps manage the telehealth equipment at the
Bay Mills Health Center where her mother chats with Dr. Baldwin.
“She’s 82 years old. It’s a three-hour drive to Marquette.
We usually spend three to four hours in Marquette and then there’s the
drive back,” Elliott said. “At her age, she’s exhausted after
a trip like that. Using telehealth, the trip takes about a half hour. It’s
win/win for the both of us.”
Elliott and Dr. Baldwin decided to use telehealth after determining that
the road trip to and from Marquette was too much for Marchetti to endure
following
her heart surgery. In fact, Elliott’s job responsibilities during her
mother’s surgery proved to be the catalysts that planted the telehealth
seed in everyone’s mind.
“I wanted to stay with my mom while she recovered from heart surgery at
MGH,” Elliott said, “but I had a smoking cessation class to teach
at Bay Mills. I didn’t want to leave my mom and travel three hours,
teach the class, then turn around and come back again.
“With a few phone calls to the super people in the (MGHS) Telehealth Department,
I was able to conduct my class from Marquette to Bay Mills. It worked out
very well. I decided that for follow-ups and consults, telehealth might save
my mom
a lot of stress and exhaustion.”
Although she still has several health hurdles to overcome, Marchetti is able
to consult with Dr. Baldwin through a monitor instead of a road trip.
Said Dr. Baldwin: “In this day and age, it’s encouraging to have
telehealth technology available to specialists and their patients. In Jean
Marchetti’s situation, the telehealth option was convenient and
very useful.”
Marchetti reflected on the advances telehealth represents in comparison
to her own years in the medical profession.
“It gives today’s patients the resources associated with a specialist
that were not available back then, unless the patient was willing to travel,” she
said.
Last year, more than 500 patients used Marquette General’s telehealth
technology to communicate with their physician, and more than 1,000 people
used the system for a wide variety of health reasons.
A recent customer
survey performed by Michigan State University discovered that telehealth
technology
not only provided patients with easily accessible health care, but it
also alleviated many burdens on loved ones and caregivers, freeing them
from travel
and other time-consuming commitments.
For more information on Marquette General Hospital’s Telehealth technology,
call 1-800-562-9753 ext. 4766 or visit the Marquette General’s
Telehealth website at www.mgh.org/telehealth/index.html. For more information
about the
Upper Michigan Heart Institute, visit its website at www.mgh.org/heart/heart.html.
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