Hospitals are increasingly using telemedicine to expand access to care and provide an effective, resource-efficient alternative to traditional office visits.
However, implementing a telemedicine program often requires a significant capital outlay. The following 10 hospitals have recently received grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help expand their telemedicine offerings:
- Kalispell (Mont.) Regional Medical Center: $363,326 to connect more rural locations in its hub-and-spoke telemedicine system and fund its distance learning program.
- Avera Health (Sioux Falls, S.D.): $294,586 to purchase new telemedicine equipment and expand its telemedicine program.
- Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital (Lebanon, N.H.): Two grants totaling $998,356 to expand its telemedicine network by purchasing equipment for rural providers in New Hampshire and Vermont.
- Flagstaff (Ariz.) Medical Center: $129,412 to purchase equipment to link the medical center with rural clinics in surrounding areas.
- Norton Healthcare (Louisville, Ky.): $259,607 to expand the Norton Rural Medicine Initiative, which provides specialists consults to rural care settings.
- Ozarks Medical Center (West Plains, Mo.): $274,638 to purchase equipment to expand telemedicine services in the system's four hospitals and nine clinics.
- University of Mississippi Medical Center (Jackson): $378,360 to purchase high-definition video teleconferencing units for emergency departments and ambulatory facilities at several rural hospitals to allow for consults with UMMC physicians.
- Davis Memorial Hospital (Elkins, W.Va.): $74,189 to establish telemedicine consultations between physicians at Davis Memorial Hospital and local nursing homes.
- Hampton Regional Medical Center (Varnville, S.C.): $249,162 to purchase a variety of video teleconferencing equipment and digital exam devices for the medical center and nine end-user sites.
- Mercy Health (Chesterfield, Mo.): $382,748 to purchase telemedicine equipment and devices for exam rooms in 11 sites in Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma.
More Articles on Telemedicine:
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Study: Telemedicine in Nursing Homes Can Reduce Hospitalizations
5 Examples of Effective Uses of Telemedicine