After The Carpenter Health Network deployed the Hippo Virtual Care™ platform, the network’s chief medical officer, James Ratliff, MD, called the platform “an absolute differentiator” that brings “an acute solution to an acute problem.”

The Carpenter Health Network provides post-acute care services including home health, palliative, hospice, and rehabilitative services throughout Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Arkansas. The network also owns and manages Homedica HouseCalls, a virtual physician’s office that specializes in house calls.

Carpenter is committed to effective and efficient care, and Hippo Virtual Care has allowed the network’s medical directors to work with remote and onsite nurse practitioners in their long-term acute care hospitals (LTACs), rehabilitation centers, and nursing homes. Healthcare professionals who’ve used the platform within the network have eagerly adopted it, praising everything from its ease of use and financial benefits to its usefulness in improving speed and quality of care.

The partnership between Carpenter and Hippo has expanded in 2024, with additional praise for the platform being echoed at other Carpenter facilities, including Sage Specialty Hospital.

Revolutionizing Patient Care Via Real-Time Specialist Access

Located in Louisiana, Sage Specialty Hospital offers patients with complex medical conditions the continued intensive medical care they need when they’re discharged from a traditional acute care hospital, but still need additional time to recover before they can go home or be admitted to a rehabilitation hospital or skilled nursing facility.

According to one family nurse practitioner at the facility, the integration of iPads and wearable computing at Sage facilities has “revolutionized patient care by providing real-time visual access to patients” experiencing worsening symptoms or concerning issues.

Uche cites two recent examples of patients whose troubling conditions were quickly recognized and treated with the help of Hippo Virtual Care.

The first patient, who was critically ill upon being transferred to the facility, required immediate intubation upon arrival due to poor oxygenation.

“Using the iPad and Hippo Virtual Care headset, I could hear the patient’s gargling secretions, observe the cardiac monitor readings, and collaborate with nursing staff on the ground to assess the situation accurately,” says Uche. “This real-time visual assessment allowed us to determine that the patient needed a higher level of care promptly.”

In the second instance, Uche was able to use the platform to remotely monitor a patient displaying supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) on the cardiac monitor, then provide timely medication to help control the patient’s heart rate.

According to Uche, “The virtual presence and collaboration with the nursing team proved instrumental in delivering swift and effective interventions for both patients.”