The Medical University of South Carolina’s (MUSC), https://web.musc.edu Center for Telehealth has received a three year $1,545 million grant from HRSA seeking to not only support telehealth but at the same time, initiate a workforce development pipeline to address rural health workforce disparities.
The funding supports the South Carolina Rural Telehealth Workforce Pipeline Network (RTWPN) and brings together statewide collaborations. The Network will work to expand public health capacity by supporting healthcare job development, training, and placement in rural communities.
The RTWPN will develop opportunities for high school and technical college students to help gain exposure and in-depth experiences with telehealth in their local communities. Activities will include both broad education opportunities and how to integrate telehealth into health science curricula.
As the lead healthcare organization in the RTWPN, MUSC plans to increase telehealth capacity across their Regional Health Network (RHN) rural hospitals, and primary care sites by recruiting HIT and associate-level nursing team members from six rural counties as part of the Center for Telehealth’s centralized support team.
The Network will allow MUSC to expand access to telehealth for patients in rural communities more effectively. In addition, efforts will be taken to increase capacity through hiring, and the RTWPN will also provide broader telehealth training to employees across all RHN sites.