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SALISBURY – Rowan Regional Medical Center in Salisbury has adopted a smart phone app to monitor patients in labor. The app allows doctors to make critical decisions at a moment's notice remotely, at any time.

Catherine Smoot is expecting her first child and as a patient at Rowan Regional Medical Center in Salisbury she feels fortunate.

"Very privileged, very blessed," said Smoot.

Dr. Mike Mills can monitor her progress with a smart phone app.

"It's like the doctor being in the room the entire time they're in labor," said Dr. Mills, an OB/Gyn at Rowan Regional Medical Center.

The app, called AirStrip OB, allows doctor's to monitor patients in labor from outside the hospital. The baby's heart rate and other vital signs can be accessed anytime.

"If you're at church on Sunday morning, at home, if it's 3 o'clock in the morning," said Mills.

AirStrip OB offers the exact real time data used in the hospital, increasing a doctor's response time.

"If there are abnormalities in the fetal heart rate and we can look at that immediately then we can begin interventions prior to even arriving at the hospital," said Dr. Mills.

"If there is something like high blood pressure, like I have, and they need to get to it immediately I thinks that's really good," explained Smoot.

And nurses monitoring patients while the doctor is out can assist them before doctors arrive, saving crucial moments that can affect a delivery. Before the app, nurses would have to describe data over the phone and the doctor would often have to see it in person before making a decision.

"If we don't feel comfortable with what we're looking at, we can have them pull it up and they can decide if they like what they're seeing," said nurse Brandi Barger.

Mills says it can take him up to 15 minutes to get to the hospital. If necessary, an operating room can be ready in that time for the patient when he arrives.

"That 10-15 minutes can make a huge difference as far as the baby's outcome," said Mills.

Rowan Regional is one of the first hospitals in the state to offer the app and it could be standard across the country soon.

"I can easily see that this will become the standard of care within the next few years," said Mills.

AirStrip OB is offered at 9 Novant Health Care hospitals across the state.