USDA Assistant to the Secretary for Rural Development, Anne Hazlett, recently announced that USDA is investing in e-connectivity which will provide virtual access to job training, educational, and health care opportunities for rural communities.
“Under Secretary [Sonny] Perdue’s leadership, USDA is committed to being a strong partner in creating rural prosperity,” Hazlett said. “Connecting rural Americans to quality education and health care services is an innovative and important tool in our efforts to facilitate economic growth, job creation and quality of life in rural America.”
USDA is awarding 72 grants totaling $23.6 million through the Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT) Grant Program. This program invests in equipment that uses broadband to help rural communities connect to educational and health care services. These vital services are part of the foundation of a high quality of life and enable communities to overcome the effects of remoteness and low population density by connecting them to the rest of the world through high-speed internet.
The grants are supporting projects based in Alaska, Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia.
Examples of projects include:
Arizona
Flagstaff Medical Center, Inc. will receive $249,601 to help finance telemedicine carts at five sites, upgrade telemedicine carts at 10 sites and purchase 89 remote monitoring devices for patients in isolated rural communities in central and northern Arizona. Flagstaff Medical Center and Verde Valley Medical Center will be the hub sites for the project. This project will serve residents in Apache, Coconino, Mohave, Navajo and Yavapai counties. Patient consultations, specialist referral services, remote patient monitoring and medical education will be available to the region’s rural, low-income, tribal patients. The project will reduce travel time for patients and their providers, improve the communication of medical data and improve access to health care.
California
The Institute for Telehealth is receiving $325,665 to be used to help the institute in Placer County purchase video conferencing equipment to provide interactive telemedicine services. The project will benefit one hub site in California and 33 end-user sites in 32 communities throughout the Pacific Northwest (Washington, Montana, Alaska, Idaho and Oregon) by providing video conferencing units and software. It will allow hospitals, medical clinics and nursing homes to communicate with specialists and participate in an Anti-Microbial Stewardship program implemented by the institute.
Colorado
Lincoln Community Hospital and Nursing Home is receiving a $265,622 grant to establish a telemedicine network between hospitals and clinics in Colorado serving more than 20,000 residents in Adams, Cheyenne, Kit Carson, Lincoln and Phillips counties. Improved medical services include behavioral health, post-operative care and care management for chronic conditions. Mobile clinics will provide medical services at patients’ homes and will provide access to specialty care and tele-stroke services.
Nebraska
Southeast Community College will receive $120,582 to help create a distance learning program. Campuses in Lincoln, Milford and Beatrice will act as hubs and will connect to learning centers in Hebron, Plattsmouth and Falls City. Distance learning will focus on health care education and continuing education.
New Mexico
New Mexico Junior College in Hobbs will receive $411,350 to help fund the Lea County distance learning project. The project will connect to four end-user sites in Tatum, Eunice, Lovington and Jal. It will create an environment that facilitates the development of distance learning instruction. It will support first-generation college students and will encourage faculty participation in distance learning initiatives.
Oklahoma
Northwestern Oklahoma State University will use $231,983 to help purchase video conferencing equipment to provide interactive distance learning services. The project will benefit two hubs and five end-user sites in seven communities by providing video conferencing equipment. The university will provide college courses and professional development at partner high schools, provide remote access to continuing medical education at Cimarron Memorial Hospital, expand academic offerings at Panhandle State University, and provide distance learning to Crabtree Correctional Facility for college courses and degree programs to better prepare inmates for work after release.
South Dakota
Avera Health will receive $484,271 to help implement a telehealth project to enhance labor and delivery and post-partum services for mothers and their babies. The end-user sites are 11 rural hospitals in South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota. This project will greatly improve labor and delivery services in rural hospitals by making highly specialized and dedicated specialists available whenever they are needed.
Texas
Northwest Texas Healthcare System, an acute care hospital, is receiving $427,113 to help create a telemedicine project that will work with a consortium of seven health care facilities in the Texas Panhandle. The project will connect rural patients to telemedicine opportunities through video teleconferencing. It will operate under the designation of the Texas Panhandle Specialty Telemedicine Project and will offer higher levels of specialized care via telemedicine to rural patients in Collingsworth, Hansford, Hemphill, Ochiltree, Swisher and Wheeler counties. Northwest Texas Healthcare System will offer emergency, trauma, cardiac, stroke, hospital and psychiatric services.
Washington
In Sunnyside, Sunnyside Community Hospital is receiving $68,237 to help the Sunnyside Community Hospital Association create a telemedicine project by purchasing equipment to enable citizens of Benton, Grant and Yakima counties to get access to the latest telemedicine technology. Sunnyside proposes six hubs and six end user sites. The hubs are specialty clinics spread across a 50-mile expanse of Interstate 82, from Yakima in the northwest corner of the service area to Prosser in the southeast corner.
In April 2017, President Donald Trump established the Interagency Task Force on Agriculture and Rural Prosperity to identify legislative, regulatory and policy changes that could promote agriculture and prosperity in rural communities. In January 2018, Perdue presented the task force’s findings which included 31 recommendations to align the federal government with state, local and tribal governments to take advantage of opportunities that exist in rural America. After receiving the report, Trump signed two executive orders to fund and streamline the expansion of rural broadband access. — WLJ
