With the help of $40,000 in grants from several Farm Credit organizations, Minneapolis-based Allina Health will begin offering remote cardiology services to patients at the RC Hospital in rural Olivia, Minn.
An expansion of the health system's existing telemedicine efforts, cardiologists at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis will soon be able to communicate with patients and RC Hospital clinicians and offer diagnoses or other advice. Expected to launch this month, the program will initially be able to accommodate six patients per week.
"People are happier when they can be cared for where they live," said Nathan G. Blad, president of RC Hospitals & Clinics, in a news release. "Telehealth improves the quality of local care and helps to prevent unnecessary hospital admissions. Plus, if people need to go to the Twin Cities, the physicians will already be familiar with them, so those transitions are smoother, too."
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