Kaiser Permanente Redwood City providing San Mateo Med with emergency neuro services

First-of-its-kind Agreement Between Local Hospitals in San Mateo County

 

            A ground-breaking agreement between Kaiser Permanente Redwood City and the San Mateo Medical Center will provide some of Kaiser’s world-class emergency neurological and neurosurgery services for patients of the San Mateo Medical Center. Emergency room physicians at the San Mateo Medical Center will be able to consult quickly, electronically, and securely  24/7 with the neurosciences department at KP Redwood City and transfer patients with critical cranial conditions to KP Redwood City when they can be safely transferred. 

            “This is truly a ground-breaking agreement with Kaiser Permanente that will improve the health of San Mateo Medical Center patients,” said Dr. Susan Ehrlich, Chief Executive Officer of the San Mateo Medical Center.  The county medical center serves more than 75,000 patients every year.

            Kaiser Permanente’s Redwood City Hospital is a regional center for neurosciences and neurosurgery, performing nearly 2,000 complex procedures every year. The patients coming from San Mateo Medical Center might include those needing emergency surgery for aneurysms and cranial hemorrhages, according to Tomi Saarnio, Director of Neurosciences at Kaiser Permanente Redwood City.

            “This is really the right thing to do,” said Dr. Jim O’Donnell, Physician-in-Chief of the Kaiser Permanente Redwood City Hospital.  “Kaiser Permanente is well-known for its mission to improve the health of the communities where we work and this is our Community Benefit program in action.”

            Dr. O’Donnell says the two medical centers have successfully overcome the challenges of having their individual electronic medical records systems “talk” to each other. The San Mateo Medical Center Emergency Department can now securely transmit vital diagnostic images and reports to neuroscience and neurosurgery specialists at Kaiser Permanente Redwood City.  There, physicians can quickly assemble expert teams and prepare sophisticated operating rooms to care for an incoming patient from San Mateo.

            Dr. Ehrlich says that her hospital is very eager to work with Kaiser Permanente in this program to enhance quality in treating neurological emergencies... After patients are treated and stabilized at Kaiser Permanente Redwood City, they will be released to their homes or returned to San Mateo Medical Center or another level of care for further recovery.

            “I’m really proud that we can expand our superior neurological services outside the Kaiser Permanente family,” said Dr. O’Donnell.

            He pointed out the two medical centers have already been practicing the protocols using virtual, only-on-the-computer patients.