ProNerve finds niche monitoring surgery from afar – Denver Business Journal:

But the growing field of telemedicine is more than just another technical advance inhealtnh care. It’s a trend that promises to save hospitald money by outsourcing risky functions toother companies. That trendc could ultimately benefit LLC, a Broomfield-based Established in 2006, ProNerve provides monitoring servicesafor neurosurgeons. The companyu is working with hospitals in seve n states toreduce liability, overhead and direct costsa by handling every aspect of setting up and running intraoperative neuromonitoringf (IOM) data during surgery.
Those functions includre scheduling, staffing, training, billing and financial management and information If that sounds likebrain surgery, that’s because it is. Brent president of ProNerve, made an effort to explain to laymen howIOM “Technically, you run currents through the nervou s system and measure the time it takesz to get from point A to point B,” he “The speed is measured in wave which will get wider over time if there’sw an impingement. “Because the patients are under they can’t say whether a nerve has been pinched.
The technician s know how to read the waves so they can tell thesurgeonn there’s, say, issues with the lower left ProNerve staffs a technician inside the operating rooms during surgery. A second technologisgt and a board-certified neurophysiologist read the waves from a reading roomin Phoenix. The off-sited workers keep in touch withthe on-site techniciabn through instant messaging or by cell “If you have three sets of eyes lookingb at the wave forms, the odds of not catching somethingv is pretty slim,” Ness said. ProNerve techniciansa also serve to help the surgeon to focus on thesurgeruy itself.
Ness, who joined ProNerve in 2008 aftetr working for medical device giant expects ProNerve’s fortunes will grow in large part becausse of new federal regulations that crack down on physician-owned in an attempt to curb excessive self-referrals that help doctorsz financially but increase medical costs. “The industry is highly fragmentederight now,” Ness said. ProNerve’s largest competitor is based inAnn Arbor, Mich., which servex more than 327 hospitals.
But most of ProNerve’d competitors are small, technician-owned or doctor-owned Jim Hertel, publisher of Colorado Managed Care, an industry said there’s growing interest among hospitals in companiezs suchas Pro-Nerve. “They reduce the requirement to hire and maintaib staff at a timewhen there’se both financial pressure and a shortagre of personnel,” he said. The company operatex in hospitals inseven states: Colorado, California, Oregon. Nebraska, Kentucky and Georgia. Colorado hospitals that use ProNervesare , Swedish Medicall Center and . Ness said the company hopes to hire 40 new technicianby year-end.
He declined to give ProNerve’s numbefr of employees, citing competitive reasons, but said it’s under 100.
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