The Sidney Health Center (SHC) at www.sidneyhealth.org is the largest employer in North and South Dakota and has been recognized for 20 years of excellence as a member of the Eastern Montana Telemedicine Network. The Network is a mature telemedicine delivery system providing medical care services in 29 rural and frontier Montana communities.
Currently, medical and mental health services comprise 71 percent of all network activity and over 80 specialists and clinicians provide care in 26 specialty areas. Very importantly, mental health telemedicine encounters are a vital service of the telemedicine network since few psychiatrists practice east of Billings Montana.
In 2012, the Billings Clinic where the Eastern Montana Telemedicine Network Office is located, received funding from USDA’s Distance Learning and Telemedicine grant program to purchase medical peripheral equipment to expand clinical telemedicine services. Sidney Health was one of 16 sites that received an ENT scope and a specialized patient exam camera, enabling the expansion of clinical care in the areas of dermatology, allergy, and ENT.
Recently, SHC partnered with Sanford Health at www.sandfordhealth.org to provide patients with an integrated state-of-the-art EHR and SHC expects to convert to the Epic software system in 2014. “Implementing a software system of this magnitude would not be possible without a coordinated effort,” said Rick Haraldson SHC CEO.
Sanford Health also headquartered in the Dakotas is now the largest rural, not-for-profit healthcare system in the country with locations in 126 communities in eight states. Sanford Health expects to experience dynamic growth and development since receiving nearly $700 million from Denny Sanford which makes the millions received the largest gift ever made to a healthcare organization in America.