St. Luke’s teams with libraries to expand care with TytoClinic-enhanced virtual visits

St. Luke’s Elmore team members recently celebrated the opening of a new privacy pod alongside Mountain Home Library staff, featuring a newly-donated TytoClinic setup.

The new privacy pod is located inside of the Mountain Home Library and offers a designated space for vital community services, like virtual care visits, enhanced by a TytoClinic kit. It joins another pod at the Hailey Library, also recently implemented by St. Luke’s Wood River teams.

With this new offering, community members in both the Mountain Home and Wood River Valley areas can have greater access to care and schedule same-day virtual visits through MyChart with St. Luke’s providers from a dedicated telehealth room within the libraries.

Equipped with an iPad and TytoCare’s FDA-cleared handheld diagnostic device, the TytoClinic allows patients and clinicians to conduct high-quality remote exams, including listening to heart and lung sounds, examining ears and throat, and measuring vital signs such as temperature and oxygen levels. Clinicians can use this examination data to diagnose conditions, recommend treatment, and, if needed, prescribe medications.

Expanding access in rural areas

With the addition of TytoClinic, St. Luke’s and public libraries are expanding health care access, ensuring high-quality care is available to all community members regardless of geographic barriers. Additional TytoClinics are planned for communities served by St. Luke’s Health System.

“Our goal is to make health care as convenient and accessible as we can,” said Abby Losinski, director of telehealth at St. Luke’s Health System. “In a rural state like Idaho, we can’t simply build more clinics; there aren’t enough physicians to staff them. Instead, our strategy is to create virtual hubs in community spaces, such as libraries, that patrons know and trust to increase access to a clinician every day.”

In addition to TytoClinic for virtual care visits, the Mountain Home Library’s new Wakelee Room, named after the late, beloved pediatrician, Dr. Annis Wakelee Bledsoe, is equipped with cutting-edge technology. The space is designed to offer a quiet, confidential environment for other needs like a job interview study space, or legal counsel.

Both library spaces require specific reservations through their respective locations.

Funding

The Wakelee Room (privacy pod) in Mountain Home is part of an initiative funded by the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, which worked with libraries across Idaho to provide selected locations with the equipment necessary for enhanced spaces. In Hailey, the initiative is part of the Idaho Commission for Libraries (ICfL) program to promote telehealth in libraries statewide.

—St. Luke's Wood River public relations manager Joy Prudek contributed to this release