According to an article www.politico.com/story/2015/02/mississip-telemedicine-115515.html by David Pittman writing for “Politico”, the state of Mississippi ranks at or near the bottom in most health rankings in terms of infant mortality, obesity, and cancer deaths. However, the state leads in the use of telemedicine and is ranked among the seven best in the country. In addition, broadband now reaches most rural areas in the state.
The state’s congressional delegation is at the center of a small group of lawmakers championing telemedicine. Former Senate Majority leader, Trent Lott is lobbying for the technology which could generate profits if Medicare starts reimbursing telemedicine in a significant way. Trent Lott helped launch the telemedicine lobbying group “Alliance for Connected Care” www.connectwithcare.org to push for lowering Medicare’s payment barriers.
Kristi Henderson who runs the Center for Telehealth www.umc.edu/telehealth at the University of Mississippi Medical Center helped to start a pilot in 2003 to connect emergency physicians in Jackson with three rural hospitals using telecommunications.
Today, the Center for Telehealth now includes 36 specialties, provides 8,000 telemedicine visits a month, and 100,000 a year across the state with services as varied as diabetes counseling and examining premature babies.
An announcement was just made that Venyu Solutions, LLC www.venyu.com will construct a stand-alone 16,000 square foot facility scheduled to open July 2016 to accommodate the great increase in services at UMMC’s Center for Telehealth.
The new center will include a telehealth operations center, a call center, a remote patient monitoring center, an Innovation Living Lab, and a workforce development training center with a focus on healthcare and technology development.
The Center for Telehealth program has been successful in using long-distance electronics to treat newborns with special needs enabling New Albany Hospital to connect with neonatal intensivists at North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo, www.nmhs.net nearly 30 miles away. For example, neonatologists at the Medical Center can check vital signs, conduct a visual exam, review X-rays, and listen to the baby’s heart and lungs using a stethoscope attachment.
The North Sunflower Medical Center http://northsunflower.com in Ruleville Mississippi, a critical access hospital serving one of the poorest counties in the country, uses telemedicine for emergency services, psychiatry, to treat diabetes and for other treatments.
Early outcome data has been positive according to Henderson. “For example, patients suffering cardiac arrest in rural emergency departments using telemedicine are doing as well as those treated at Jackson’s big hospital.”
Health officials in the state are working to expand telemedicine to schools to help nurses manage chronic disease and other conditions. Where remote monitoring is used to help manage diabetes, positive results have been obtained in controlling students’ blood sugar with no hospitalizations or emergency department visits required.
Henderson has flown to Washington D.C. three times this year to talk about Mississippi’s telemedicine efforts. She attributes success to the fact that health insurers are paying for telemedicine, but also there is necessary support from the state, from the governor’s office, and on down to the community level.