I have seen the Electroencephalogram (EEG) industry change dramatically over the past decade. When I entered the field in 2016 almost the entirety of EEG services took place within the confines of the hospital that was performing the test. Outpatient EEGs were performed and read on-site and continuous EEGs (cEEG) were reviewed every few hours by registered technologists and then interpreted by physicians. In recent years, hospitals have been utilizing Tele EEG services to ensure that their patients with running EEGs continuously are monitored by registered technologists so they can ensure the most rapid response to changes in the patient’s state.
Tele EEG Services use remote registered technologists and/or interpreting epileptologists to monitor EEGs from an off-site location, sometimes from other regions of the country. These services can yield benefits for large and small hospitals alike. Large hospitals can provide high-quality care for a significant patient population while keeping their on-site employees in direct patient facing roles. This allows their neurologists to spend more time in clinic rather than reading EEGs. These large hospitals can also use Tele EEG services to supplement their on-site staffing, so they are able to utilize those personnel to complete more outpatient EEGs.
This service can be even more critical for small and rural hospital systems which likely do not have the resources to keep a specialist on staff full-time or to run a fully staffed EEG department. Tele EEG gives them access to professional specialists so they can give their patients the same level of care as they would in a larger facility. Tele EEG services can also allow hospitals to supplement their on-site staffing, so they are able to utilize those personnel to complete more outpatient EEGs. The fact that these services exist does provide some peace of mind for my family. I currently live in rural Kansas and am several hours from the nearest large pediatric hospital.
Not all seizures are as obvious as the full-body convulsions that are easily noticed by anyone around. Continuous EEG monitoring provides an incredible benefit to patients who may have non-existent or subtle physical representations of seizure. A registered monitoring technologist, REEGT, can notify the bedside nurse or the attending neurologist of changes in the patient’s electrographic state in real time. This can help minimize the risk of long-term neurological damage from a prolonged seizure that could otherwise go unnoticed for hours.
24-hour EEG monitoring can improve patient outcomes for post-cardiac arrest patients undergoing therapeutic hypothermia. These patients are at increased risk for subclinical seizures due to potential neurological damage from a lack of oxygen. This same scenario can help newborns who suffered a hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), a brain injury that occurs when the brain doesn’t receive enough oxygen during birth.
Tele EEG services have expanded the role of technologists and for physicians alike. There is a shortage of these in-demand professionals. Having these professionals analyze and read EEGs remotely, we can more efficiently use these limited manpower resources. This can help manage healthcare costs by allowing them to utilize the services only when they are required instead of keeping many professionals on staff when the patient census is low.
To learn more about IntraNerve Neuroscience’s EEG solutions for your facility, email us at info@intranerve.com.
Written By: George “Zack” Schreyer, MHA, R. EEG T., CLTM, RPSGT
