Stony Brook (N.Y.) Medicine will use a $966,026 award from the FCC's COVID-19 Telehealth Program to provide digital devices and remote monitoring equipment to individuals in need to participate in virtual care visits.
Stony Brook University Hospital will disperse the funds to several departments including inpatient/outpatient care management, internal medicine and psychiatry to alleviate health disparities by increasing access to telehealth technology. Under the initiative, community members will receive tablets, smartphones, a telehealth platform subscription and remote monitoring equipment for telehealth visits.
The hospital will also use telehealth technology for its heart failure program, which launched Nov. 9, so that patients can have daily evaluations of their heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation and weight.
The funding will also let Stony Brook increase its number of digital stethoscopes, which help clinicians perform remote evaluations of heart-lung sounds when a patient is hospitalized at Stony Brook University Hospital. The tech helps the hospital limit the number of times physicians need to enter a patient's room and preserve personal protective equipment for staff.