Telemedicine in Oral Surgery and Maxillofacial Trauma: A Descriptive Account

Abstract

Trauma patients presenting to emergency rooms (ER) in rural or remote locations have significantly less access to oral and maxillo-facial surgery (OMFS) specialists. In this case, OMFS services at four hospitals were rearranged to concentrate expertise, inpatients, and 24/7 cover on a single site. A Federation (managed clinical network) model was used that improved the management of inpatients and made better use of a small team of junior medical staff. New government standards limiting the on-call burden for U.K. junior doctors (The New deal) were met under this service model. Despite the success of the Federation, the loss of on-site OMFS support to the three peripheral ER departments was problematic. Sites that do not have OMFS support used a simple telephone referral to transfer patients to the OMFS center. The degree to which referrals were considered inappropriate led to operational and patient satisfaction difficulties. The introduction of an OMFS telemedicine system linking the three peripheral/"spoke" ER departments to the OMFS center/"hub" succeeded in increasing the appropriateness of patient transfers, developed the skills of the ER medical staff, and was believed to have led to an overall improvement in the early-stage management of this group of patients. The telemedicine system augmented the overall success of the Federation model. New uses for telemedicine within the OMFS service soon developed.