Specialists On Call achieves telemedicine milestone

Dec 22 2009

Specialists On Call, Inc. (SOC), announced today that it recently delivered its 10,000th emergency teleneurology consultation since the company's inception. This telemedicine milestone is an unprecedented achievement and expands SOC's leadership position as the largest private emergency teleneurology provider in the country. SOC reached 10,000 consults when it recently responded to a neurologic emergency at Baptist Hospital in Pensacola, Florida. Baptist Hospital is a 435 bed facility that has used SOC's teleneurology service for close to a year and a half.

Specialists On Call currently provides hospitals nationwide with immediate 24/7 access to a select cadre of board certified neurologists via telemedical link. With SOC specialists supporting local ED and inpatient physicians, hospitals are able to treat neurologic emergencies and stroke patients with greater efficiency and effectiveness. Hospitals using SOC's teleneurology service report delivering the clot dissolving drug, tPA, to 59% of patients presenting with Acute Ischemic Stroke within the 3 hour window. This delivery rate is over three times the national average for hospitals treating similarly eligible stroke patients without SOC's teleneurology service.

Dr. Joe Peterson, the CEO of SOC, commented, "Specialists On Call continues to grow quickly with our offering of superb clinical quality and unmatched financial efficiency. We are demonstrating that a clinical telemedicine solution can scale orders of magnitude beyond local projects, and in doing so we are advancing the care of patients while relieving local resources of burdensome and poorly compensated on-call schedules yet without carving into their practices. By achieving and maintaining Joint Commission accreditation, we have put our performance up against the same quality standards that our hospital clients are held to. So everyone wins with this solution, which is why we're growing now into new states and specialties, because their on-call dynamics are essentially the same. The SOC team's very hard work and our investors' commitment has put SOC in a leadership position within a growth industry that we will not relinquish."

SOC's SVP of Operations, Karen Deli, added, "We are thrilled to have built something that delivers such positive results for everyone involved. Patients and their families, hospitals, local physicians and insurance companies all benefit from our teleneurology service. Considering the number of lives affected by 10,000 consultations, SOC is a real game changer and it's a privilege to be a part of this company. The fact that we improve the clinical and the financial strength of our hospital clients will drive us to perform more than 13,000 consultations in 2010 alone."

Tammie Stefanko, the Stroke Coordinator at Baptist Hospital in Pensacola, Florida, added, "Specialists On Call has made a tremendous impact on our hospital and our patients. With SOC, we have immediate access to neurologists and we can treat stroke patients with confidence and regularity. We have already had a number of success stories with their teleneurology service and we frequently use it for our patients with any neurologic emergency."

Dr. Peterson summarized, "10,000 consultations is both a testament to our clinical effectiveness and a validation of our business model. We're expanding the adoption and utilization of our teleneurology service in partnership with some of the best neurologists in the country and, in doing so, we have the knowledge in hand today to pursue our goal of accelerating growth from 12 states to a truly national scope."