Area stroke patients now have direct access to some of the region's top neurologists through a telemedicine partnership between Hillsboro Area Hospital and St. John's Hospital in Springfield.

"This has been a longtime vision for hospital CEO Rex Brown," said Support Services Manager Geoff Trost. "He has always wanted us to be connected to specialists at larger hospitals."

That vision became a reality in October, when St. John's Hospital installed "the robot" in the hospital's emergency room. Currently the equipment is only used with stroke patients, but the hospital hopes to expand into pediatric and cardiac care in the future.

If a patient having a stroke comes into the emergency room at Hillsboro Area Hospital, that patient and his or her family can speak directly to a neurologist at St. John's Hospital to determine whether that patient needs to be transferred and a plan of care.

"We can now offer immediate assessment by a specialist," said Chris Henson, director of emergency services. "If that patient happens to need to be transferred then he or she has already met the doctor they will be working with in Springfield."

Henson said when it comes to stroke patients, time is of the essence in treatment and "the robot" allows specialists to visualize their patients and work directly with local emergency room personnel to offer the best possible care.

As they branch into cardiac care, "the robot" features a stethoscope where the specialist can actually hear the patient's heartbeat from a distance. It also features a phone in case the patient wants to discuss something with the doctor privately.

"It's pretty exciting to be able to do this," said Rosann Heck, community relations director. "It's a wonderful thing to have here and be able to offer it to people locally. The patient can feel good knowing they have the best technology available."

"The robot" device was installed in October, and was used by a stroke patient the very next day.

Making the telemedicine even better is the addition of a rural medicine fiber optic line, which was completed in January.

Trost said the federal government issued a grant to the Illinois Rural Health Network to connect rural hospitals to ones in larger cities. However, when it was first announced, it only went as far as St. Francis Hospital in Litchfield, and Hillsboro Area Hospital was not included.

The hospital applied for a grant, and a fiber optic line was run from St. Francis Hospital all along Illinois Route 16 to Hillsboro over the course of last summer.

Trost said they were totally connected on Jan. 13 improving the hospital's bandwidth from 40 megabytes to one gigabyte.

"We are able to offer a lot more capabilities because of this expanded bandwidth," Trost said. "It's a several year project, and we were lucky enough to get in on the early end of it."

He said the upgrade would allow outside doctors to see patients in real time with no delay in patient care.

"With all the changes and advances in telemedicine, there will be a lot more things happening right here at Hillsboro Area Hospital," Heck said.