Grace Cottage Family Health & Hospital, an independent, nonprofit critical access hospital and family health clinic in Townshend, Vermont, announces a new partnership with Dartmouth Health Connected Care in Lebanon, New Hampshire, to provide acute care TeleEmergency (TeleED) services to Grace Cottage patients. Through this partnership, Dartmouth Health TeleED can quickly bring additional board-certified emergency physicians and experienced emergency nurses to a patient’s bedside through live interactive audiovisual technology and collaborate with the local clinical team, including prompt assessment and treatment recommendations.
“While Grace Cottage continues to remain independent, this collaboration with Dartmouth Health Connected Care enables us to enhance our already-stellar team of Emergency Department providers,” said Doug DiVello, president and CEO of Grace Cottage Family Health & Hospital.
With this new partnership, Dartmouth Health TeleED physicians and staff provide critical-situation services, joining the local team at Grace Cottage Hospital as they prioritize and guide interventions. Patients are evaluated, managed and treated in real-time collaboration with the local attending physician or associate provider, which enhances emergency care at the local level.
“The primary goal of the Center for Telehealth is to help deliver exceptional care to patients across northern New England, regardless of location,” said Kevin Curtis, MD, MS, medical director of Dartmouth Health Connected Care. “We began our partnership with Grace Cottage’s health care team in April 2022 collaborating on TeleNeurology services, and we are very pleased to now offer TeleEmergency services, as well.”
Dartmouth Health began providing TeleED service at Grace Cottage Hospital 24/7 in August.
“We went ‘live’ with TeleEmergency Services in early August and the very next day the Dartmouth Health TeleED team helped us save the life of a patient in our Emergency Department,” said George Terwilliger, MD, chief medical officer at Grace Cottage Family Health & Hospital. “Following stabilization, the transfer to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center for urgent surgery was swift and seamless, arranged by the Dartmouth Health TeleED team that had already been assisting our emergency department team with the patient through two-way video communication.”
To learn more about Grace Cottage Family Health & Hospital, visit the Grace Cottage website. For information about Dartmouth Health Connected Care and Center for Telehealth, visit our Connected Care page.
About Dartmouth Health
Dartmouth Health, New Hampshire’s only academic health system and largest private employer, serves patients across New England. Dartmouth Health provides access to more than 2,300 providers in nearly every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH. Its network of hospitals, outpatient centers, clinics and home care facilities, spans a broad geographical area. Year after year, DHMC is named the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and is consistently recognized for high performance in numerous clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth Health includes Dartmouth Cancer Center, northern New England’s only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers and one of less than than 60 total nationally; Dartmouth Health Children’s, which includes the state’s only children’s hospital (Children’s Hospital at DHMC/CHaD) and more than 20 locations around the region; eight member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene, Claremont, Hampstead, and New London, NH, and Windsor and Bennington, VT; Dartmouth Health Home Care; Dartmouth Health Connected Care Center for Telehealth, serving patients as far away as Texas; and more than 30 primary and multi-specialty clinics across New Hampshire and Vermont. Through its partnership with Dartmouth College, Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine and the White River Junction VA Medical Center, Dartmouth Health trains nearly 400 medical residents and fellows annually and performs cutting-edge research and clinical trials with international impact. Dartmouth Health and its more than 16,000 employees are committed to serving the healthcare needs of everyone in the communities it serves and to providing every patient with exceptional, state-of-the-art, personalized care. Learn more at dartmouth-health.org.