Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/554171
of Medicine. He completed a residency in dermatology at University of Texas-Southwestern, in Dallas, and a fellowship in dermatopathology at St. Louis University. Dr. Litzner sees patients at Via Christi Clinic, 9211 E. 21st Street, in Wichita. Appointments can be made by calling 316-609-4558. INTRODUCING 'DR. ROBOTO' South Central Kansas Medical Center's (SCKMC's) newest staff member arrived recently. However, instead of the usual background checks and human resources paperwork, this clinician required assembly and programming. "Dr. Roboto," as he has been named by the staff, is part of a new program allowing patients and nursing staff remote access to physi - cians 24 hours a day. The service is called telemedicine and is being provided at SCKMC through a partnership with Eagle Telemedicine, which is based in Atlanta. Brian Hunt, MD, who is originally from Ark City, is a hospitalist — a hospital-based physician — caring for inpatients in Lawrence. In addi - tion Dr. Hunt provides telehospitalist services to hospitals on the East and West coasts as well as Kansas through Eagle Telemedicine. He, along with Marc Scarbrough, MD, and Jason Kimball, MD, will be the physicians providing care through Dr. Roboto. The service begins this August at the medical center. "The physicians that you are dealing with, we are all internal medicine practitioners with tons of experience. And we're nice people," Dr. Hunt jokes. "I've been a telehospitalist now going on two and a half years, and I love every bit of it." However, Dr. Hunt himself was skeptical when he first heard of the idea of using a robot to care for hospitalized patients. "I do not like technology. I find it confusing. I find it frustrating because it doesn't go as fast as I would like it to go. But I have found [that technology] can be amazing in what it can do and how it can help take care of folks," Dr. Hunt says. "I believe in rural Kansas. I believe that folks who live in an Ark City, or any part of the state besides Kansas City, Wichita, Salina or Hays, deserve the same quality care and intensity of care as anybody else, anywhere else. I believe telemedicine can play a role. It's not the whole answer, but if I can help out with that, it just makes my day." SCKMC Chief Executive Officer Virgil Watson agrees with Dr. Hunt that telehospitalist services can improve patient care. But Watson be - lieves the program will also improve job satisfaction with hospital staff. "[Telehospitalists] hopefully will give every patient who comes into our hospital instant access to a physician to help extend their primary care physician's care that is already being rendered," Watson says. "Our nurses will have immediate access to the physician. Hopefully, that will cut down on turnover and stress for them, especially during the middle of the night, giving [the nursing staff] the extra access to physicians that they need in order to take care of patients more efficiently." In addition to enhanced patient and staff satisfaction, Watson sees Dr. Roboto as a way to improve local physicians' quality of life, while at the same time making Ark City more attractive to new providers. "Everybody I talk to says this is the future," Watson says. "The graduating physician does not want to do hospital care. If this works, we will have a little bit of an edge over everybody else when it comes to recruiting new docs. Really, what we are hoping for out of this whole process is to relieve some of the pressure of our existing medical staff, giving them the abilities to sleep all night, see more patients [at their clinics] during the day, and be a lot more patient-oriented, not overwhelmed and exhausted from the previous night's duties and responsibilities." The telehospitalist program is a significant investment for South Central Kansas Medical Center, costing roughly $326,000 the first year. Watson believes the benefits provided and the statistical averages from other facilities offering similar services justify the expense. "The data says it should increase our patients by 18 percent, as far as census is concerned," Watson says. "Now, whether that happens or not is yet to be seen. If it does, we would end up with about 142 more patients. If you do the calculations, the program pays for itself." An open house was conducted to allow the public to meet Dr. Hunt and see Dr. Roboto firsthand. ■ South Central Kansas Medical Center Medical Surgical Unit Manager, Tracy Austin, demonstrates to CEO Virgil Watson a few of the features available on a telehospitalist robot, soon to be used at the hospital. 1 8 | Greater Kansas MD NEWS ■ M D N E W S . CO M