Avera Health has received a $294,586 grant to purchase equipment and software to expand and improve its telemedicine network. Participating clinics and hospitals will receive equipment such as telephonic stethoscopes, LifePak15 Defibrillators, Sony Handicams, video laryngoscopes and Polycom videoconferencing units. The technology will give health providers and patients real-time, face-to-face consultations with specialized physicians at hub locations in Sioux Falls and Pierre, S.D., and Marshall, Minn. The system will double as an instructional medium so rural health care providers can receive medical education and mentoring.
“Avera pioneered telehealth technology in South Dakota starting in early 1990s. Continued innovation, development, and support from private and federal funds has resulted in Avera’s telehealth program, called Avera eCARE(tm),” said John T. Porter, President and CEO of Avera Health. “Avera is now a national leader in leveraging specialty care through interactive video technology to serve a rural population.”
Through programs including eConsult, eEmergency, eICU and ePharmacy, Avera eCARE:
- Has touched 169,000 patients;
- Serves 166 hospitals and clinics;
- Impacts 1,184 providers;
- Covers 545,000 square miles;
- Has saved $122 million in health care costs.
Sites will receive equipment for eConsult and/or eEmergency depending on their individual needs. Several sites will use eConsult equipment specifically for nephrology consults for dialysis and kidney disease care.
eConsult is similar to any other physician-patient interaction. Instead of a face-to-face visit, it involves the use of interactive video and computer technology. Equipment often is set up in exam rooms so that visits mirror a typical patient-physician encounter as closely as possible. A nurse, therapist or midlevel provider at the remote site assists the specialist in assessing the patient. Through monitors at both locations, the physician can see and hear the patient, and the patient can hear and see the physician.
Through eEmergency, participating rural locations can push a button and immediately be connected to an emergency medicine specialist at the Avera eCARE site in Sioux Falls, S.D. Specialists provide consults in critical situations such as life-threatening injuries, stroke or heart attack.
The announcement of nearly $16 million in USDA grants for distance learning and telemedicine services helps to support President Obama’s ConnectED initiative. In June 2013, President Obama announced an effort to connect 99 percent of America’s students to high-speed Internet over the next five years. Since 2009, USDA has provided support for more than 3,300 educational institutions receiving distance learning services to help rural children get an education that is as good as that of their peers in cities.
The USDA’s Distance Learning and Telemedicine Loan and Grant program provides funding to rural hospitals, clinics, schools and libraries for equipment and technical assistance for telemedicine and distance learning. Grant recipients must demonstrate that they serve rural
America, prove there is an economic need and provide at least 15 percent in matching funds.
Since 2009, USDA has invested almost $150 million in the Distance Learning and Telemedicine program. Avera Health has received USDA Distance Learning and Telemedicine funding every year since 2005.
The grants through Avera will go to 27 sites that are described as “exceptionally rural,” as well five other sites described as mid-rural and rural. Some sites already have connections with Avera eCARE, and others are new eCARE sites, thus expanding Avera’s eCARE network.
Sites in South Dakota include Mitchell, Chamberlain, Flandreau, Freeman, Gettysburg, Gregory, Highmore, Madison, Yankton, Milbank, Miller, Fort Pierre, Parkston, Pierre, Platte, Sisseton, Kennebec and Bowdle. Minnesota sites include Appleton, Ivanhoe, Madelia, Madison, Hendricks, Pipestone, Ortonville, Sleepy Eye and Tyler. Nebraska sites are O’Neill and Creighton, and Iowa sites include Estherville, Sibley and Rock Valley.
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Quelle/Source: Yankton Daily Press, 16.02.2014
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