USDA awards Mercy $496,349 grant benefitting rural communities in four states ST. LOUIS  – For the fourth time, the USDA has awarded Mercy a substantial grant that will provide greater access to health care in some of Mercy’s most rural communities in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Thanks to the $496,349 USDA Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grants, Mercy Virtual will implement a project that includes hospitalists, emergency care, stroke and neurology services. Video equipment will benefit more than 210,000 residents and will be placed in nine communities, including: Mercy Hospital Berryville (Arkansas) Mercy Hospital Paris (Arkansas) Mercy Hospital Waldron (Arkansas) … Read the whole story »

According to a report by the CDC released earlier this year, suicide rates between 1999-2016 have increased nationwide, with Missouri increasing by 36 percent. As this is National Suicide Prevention Week, St. Louis Magazine spoke to Dr. Kyle John, medical director of mental health at Mercy Virtual, about why he thinks suicide rates have increased and possible warning signs. According to a report by the CDC released earlier this year, suicide rates increased nationwide between 1999 and 2016. In Missouri, the rate increased by 36 percent, while Illinois’ increase was by 23 percent. In St. Louis County, between 2011 and 2015, suicide was the third most common … Read the whole story »

Oklahoma City — The setting is about as comfortable as possible for Kurtis Kennedy’s weekly checkup: it’s his kitchen table, surrounded by paintings of fruit, Oklahoma State University merchandise and photos of his Navy days. Kennedy, who has pancreatic cancer and diabetes, is one of about 50 oncology patients at Mercy Health System who participate in the vEngagement health monitoring program. He takes his blood pressure and other vital signs daily and sends them, along with his blood sugar readings, to a virtual care team. “They’re the ones that got my diabetes under control because they were on me every day,” … Read the whole story »

Can quality health care come at home, rather than the hospital? Dr. Gavin Helton, president of clinical integration at Mercy Virtual, thinks so. Helton in March assumed that role alongside Vance Moore. They share responsibility for Mercy’s virtual care strategy, with Helton focusing on clinical care and Moore on operations. Helton, a primary care physician, said the integration of virtual care is the next major step in restructuring care distribution. Helton talked with the Business Journal during SingularityU St. Louis Chapter’s first panel discussion on empowering communities with access to technology. Read the full article by clicking here.

From her home in rural Washburn, Mo., Norma Stryffeler answers a video call on her iPad to visit with her Mercy Virtual navigator Christina Meckfessel, who is located more than 280 miles away in suburban St. Louis. Stryffeler has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and a few months ago, Mercy Virtual helped her get Internet at home and supplied her with a monitoring kit that included an electronic tablet, a wireless scale that records and transmits her weight and an electronic blood pressure monitor with pulse oximeter. Stryffeler has a Mercy Virtual care team made up of Meckfessel, a nurse and … Read the whole story »

VitalConnect®, Inc., a leader in wearable biosensor technology for wireless monitoring in hospitals and remote patient populations, announced today the launch of the Vista Solution™ platform. The Vista Solution platform enables wireless, real-time, continuous patient monitoring, and delivers a seamless feed of patient data that supports timely caregiver analysis in the hospital or at home. The new platform integrates the company’s existing VitalPatch® wearable biosensor, which is the only FDA cleared Class II device that continuously measures eight biometrics in real-time. Together, the Vista Solution and the VitalPatch biosensor offer an elegant, best-in-class solution that increases patient mobility and comfort, provides oversight … Read the whole story »

Mercy Virtual has been called a hospital without patients, and the description is both true and false. There are neither beds nor patients in the gleaming four-story medical facility, which opened in late 2015 in Chesterfield, Missouri, a St. Louis suburb. But the facility is a hub of very real care for very real patients, in hospital beds and at home. Part of the Mercy health care system, which spans 44 hospitals in the Midwest, Mercy Virtual is the incarnation in bricks and mortar of what has generally been consigned to the ether: virtual care. Also referred to as telemedicine or … Read the whole story »

Shorter hospital stays, fewer complications and better patient results are just a few metrics used to rank Mercy as one of the top five large health systems in the nation, alongside Mayo Clinic. The 2017 Truven Health 15 Top Health Systems, which includes five large, five medium and five small systems, analyzes 337 health systems and 2,924 hospitals across the U.S. Click here to find the listings. “For the second year in a row, we are honored to be named one of the top five large systems in the nation for the medical care we provide to our communities,” said Lynn Britton, … Read the whole story »

CHESTERFIELD, Mo.― Located off a superhighway exit in suburban St. Louis, nestled among locust, elm and sweetgum trees, the Mercy Virtual Care Center has a lot in common with other hospitals. It has nurses and doctors and a cafeteria, and the staff spend their days looking after the very sick―checking their vital signs, recording notes, responding to orders and alarms, doing examinations and chatting with them. Click here to read full article.

study recognizes five large, five medium and five small systems from 338 health systems and 2,422 hospitals across the U.S. The focus on health-care associated infections is a new metric in the study this year due to its impact on patient care – including reducing deaths – as well as lowering the cost of care. Mercy’s efforts tied to C-diff reduction have led to significantly higher prevention and earlier detection, and have resulted in avoiding more than $5 million in health care costs from 2016 to the present. Watson Health, an IBM company and formerly known as Truven Health, produces … Read the whole story »