Becky Harless

Associate Administrator of the Ambulatory Division,
Charleston Area Medical Center

By Kristen Uppercue

Virtual health care—or virtual visits—is a new technology that allows patients to consult with physicians by smart phone or another device from any location. This technology is especially useful in rural states like West Virginia where office appointments may require an excessive amount of travel time.

Becky Harless, the associate administrator of the ambulatory division at Charleston Area Medical Center (CAMC) has spent the last year ensuring this innovative technology is accessible to West Virginians.

After taking on telemedicine—the use of telecommunications technology to remotely diagnose and treat patients—and attending a national meeting about telemedicine, she was inspired to form a team of professionals to implement the plans and grow telemedicine into something much bigger for CAMC.

“We quickly realized there were so many demands for additional services and that we would be in a building phase for a long time,” she says. “We built a three-year plan based on the discussions we had with our partners and then pushed through most of that three-year plan in one year.”

Boone Memorial Hospital was the first partner location to incorporate this technology through telestroke, which provides virtual consultations to stroke patients. Because of Harless’ work, the hospital now provides the life saving stroke care its patients need.

“I can still remember the feeling I got when I found out we had performed our first telestroke consultation,” she says. “I was beaming with pride for the team that created this possibility for this individual. I thought about how scary it must be for the patient and their family and about the relief they must feel to be able to get this care in their local hospital close to home.”

But the team’s work didn’t stop there. They brought telestroke to five more hospitals throughout the state and have begun working with other similar systems to provide more services to West Virginians like telecardiology, which provides consultations to heart disease patients.

While these accomplishments are crucial in making care more accessible, Harless’ biggest accomplishment is bringing direct-to-consumer visits to the state. Direct-to-consumer health care allows patients to chat with a physician directly on their personal devices through an app at a time that works best for the patient, whether that is 2 a.m. or 9 p.m. The platform, which was purchased through a license with Teladoc and was branded as 24/7 Care, is staffed by CAMC physicians with a national network of medical practitioners available when a CAMC staff member isn’t. The platform is currently being used for urgent care visits with hopes of providing renal, urology, oncology, psychology and many other services.

“This platform is important to West Virginia because it will be the vehicle to provide care in the future,” says Harless.

In her role as the associate administrator for the ambulatory division at CAMC, Harless works alongside ER physicians and hospitalists and cancer center urology telemedicine and addiction services staff to design innovative ways to ensure West Virginians have access to the care they need.

“I love being able to assist these wonder­ful teams in growing their departments in order to better serve our patients,” she says.

Harless has had many mentors who have influenced her leadership and manage­ment style, inspiring her to spend time mentoring and teaching the state’s next generation.

“I believe it is my job to help develop the next generation of leaders,” she says. “It’s extremely fulfilling to see folks I have hired into the system grow into mature leaders who are shaping health care in Southern West Virginia. I had some great people who took time to guide me along the way. I’m really just paying it forward.”

From mentoring young West Virginians to introducing innovative technology that makes care attainable for all who reside here, Harless’ passion for the state, its people and CAMC is evident in everything she does.

“One of the reasons I love working at CAMC is the dedication to quality they instill in everything they do,” she says. “I’m always filled with pride to see CAMC is ahead of the curve. What an honor to be able to work in a field that touches so many West Virginians’ lives for a company that is making state of-the-art care available to all.”

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CAMC Addiction Care Service

In 2017, 49.6 of every 100,000 people died of an opioid overdose in West Virginia, giving the Mountain State the highest opioid-related death rate in the country, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Charleston Area Medical Center (CAMC) has served those affected by the epidemic through the West Virginia Hospital Association Opioid Collaborative, Great Rivers Regional System of Addiction Care, West Virginia University COAT program, Premier Collaborative, Drug Free Moms and Babies Program, Ryan White Program, Recovery Point of West Virginia and Cardinal Health Collaborative Practice program.

However, CAMC’s senior leaders wanted to combine these efforts into one multidisciplinary area. The CAMC Opioid Team was formed in 2018 to focus on improving operational activities, treatment and stewardship. Since its inception, it has created a variety of training courses to inform stakeholders of the risk of opioid use disorder and ways to reduce stigma. It has also worked to improve the quality of care for those with substance use disorder by implementing new screening tools, initiating treatment and referring the individuals to addiction consultation services. The team has also administered a variety of other services, including the Baby First Program, which identifies pregnant women with substance use disorder and refers them to necessary recovery services, and the Drug Diversion Prevention Committee, which develops new policies and procedures.

In 2019, the formalized Addiction Care Service was developed to accomplish even more for those impacted by substance use disorder. While the team has provided a variety of services and programs to the community, it has plans for continued growth and outreach, including continuing education on substance use disorder and stigma, standardizing pain management for a variety of patients, developing and implementing alternatives to opioids and creating new processes for naloxone prescriptions.