Instrumental swallow studies, at your residents' bedside.

CoastalSLP brings flexible endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FEES) into hospitals, nursing facilities, and physician offices across eastern Virginia. Your resident gets a complete instrumental assessment without a transport order, an ambulance, or a day lost to radiology.

Why bring the study to the resident?

Weeks, not months, from referral to results.

Answers generally the week the order is placed. No MBS waitlist. 

No transport

The resident stays in your building. No transport authorization, no ambulance scheduling, no staff escort, no eight-hour round trip for a twenty-minute study, no return in worse condition than they left.

Preliminary results immediately after the exam for your facility SLP

I review the results with your SLP at the bedside, so diet and precaution changes can start that day rather than waiting on a report.

Real food, real seating, and the exam tailored precisely for your resident

MBS is not tailored to your resident’s specific needs.  Our SLP communicates directly with your SLP to tailor the FEES precisely for each individual resident.  FEES uses the resident's actual diet and their own chair or bed position — not barium in a radiology chair. What you see is how they actually eat.

Repeatable

There is no radiation exposure with FEES. The study can be repeated as a resident's status changes, after dysphagia treatment course to show improvement, or to document readiness for diet advancement.

How a visit works

1. First the provider’s order. Virginia requires a physician order for a FEES before the procedure can be performed. Send the order and we take it from there.

2. Scheduling typically within 1 week. Facilities with a standing agreement can group several residents into one day.

3. At the bedside, we bring the FEES equipment . The resident stays in their room, seated as they normally eat. The exam takes roughly 20–30 minutes. The facility SLP and nursing are invited to be present for the entire exam.

4. Immediate handoff. Before we leave the unit, we give verbal findings and preliminary recommendations to nursing and to your speech-language pathologist.

5. Report with images and videos within 24 hours. A written report and subsequent videos and images go to the referring physician, the facility SLP, and into the chart within 24 hours. Any abnormality observed is reported promptly to the referring physician, as Virginia regulation requires.

What your team receives

• A written report for your facility SLP tailed specifically to your resident’s rehab needs.

• Specific diet, liquid, and compensatory strategy recommendations your SLP can put into the plan of care.

• The recorded exam, available for your SLP to review and for education with the resident and family.

• Verbal findings at the time of service, before I leave the building.

• A call back to your SLP or physician if questions come up after the report.

Credentials, safety, and compliance

We understand that you are accountable for who performs procedures in your building. Here is the documentation about our endoscopist that answers your questions.

• Licensed speech-language pathologist, Virginia Board of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology, license #2202006484

• Certificate of Clinical Competence in Speech-Language Pathology (CCC-SLP), ASHA # 12024849

• Board-approved endoscopy coursework exceeding the minimum Virginia requires [Carolina FEES Training; 2020 Carolina FEES advanced training, privileged for FEES competency at Riverside Regional Medical Center]

• Current basic life support certification

• Written emergency backup protocol established with each partner facility before the first visit

• Endoscope reprocessing after every exam following manufacturer instructions for use and recognized high-level disinfection standards, with a reprocessing log available for your infection preventionist

• Carrying [professional liability limits]; certificate of insurance, W-9, and business associate agreement provided at contracting