This action will provide specialized remote care and advice to primary and secondary care hospitals in the 47 municipalities of the department of Cochabamba and nationwide.
The Telehealth program of the Bolivian Ministry of Health has reintegrated telemedicine services to Viedma Hospital, a third level health center, which has various medical specialties and is also the most important hospital in that region of Bolivia. The implementation of telemedicine services will give access to care services with specialists remotely to primary and secondary care hospitals in the 47 municipalities of Cochabamba and others nationwide.
The Viedma hospital has the capacity to provide consultations for more than 80 specialties, “by reincorporating the tools into the hospital, more specialists are available to the population,” explained the national responsible for Telehealth, Juan Pablo Escalera.
In Cochabamba there are 39 primary care hospitals with telehealth equipment and eight second-level hospitals. The equipment consists of a digital device with reading of vital signs, electrocardiogram, digital ultrasound, digital ophthalmoscope, among others, that show images and data in real time, for the specialist to interpret remotely.
Christian Gómez, director of Viedma Hospital, highlighted the benefits that telemedicine represents, “it allows our specialists to be in contact from this point with first and second level doctors in other places and in this way the patient no longer has to go to the hospital”.
The Telehealth strategy in Cochabamba had started in 2015, when the equipment was installed at Viedma Hospital more than five years ago. However, he was later relocated to other health units. With the return of Telehealth to that hospital, health authorities expect that it can connect with the 340 health establishments nationwide.
