The “Telehealth Network Grant Program” www.hrsa.gov/ruralhealth/telehealth within HRSA just awarded 21 grants totaling $6,286,264. Twenty one community health organization will each receive about $300,000 annually for up to three years to build sustainable telehealth programs and networks in medically underserved areas.
The funding can be used to expand the training of healthcare providers and to expand and improve the quality of health available to healthcare providers, patients, and their families.
The program particularly encourages teleconnections to School-Based health Centers (SBHC) and networks receiving this award must include at least one SBHC.
The Flex Rural Veterans Health Access Program www.ruralhealth.va.gov also awarded three awards for $900,000 with the primary goal to use telehealth and health IT to bring mental health and other health services to veterans lining in rural areas.
Each of the three grantees will each receive $300,000 annually for up to three years to expand existing networks of public and private healthcare providers and to enhance the sharing of clinical information electronically.
In addition, the USDA Rural Development Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT) grants were awarded to organizations in rural America. For example the California Telehealth Network www.caltelehealth.org received a three year grant for $405,917.
The funding will be used for telehealth equipment and training to improve access to telemedicine specialty physician services and distance education in underserved rural communities in northern, central, and southern California. This project consists of one hub and 48 end user sites.
The University of Virginia Center for Telehealth http://uva.health.com will use their DLT funding for $153,082 to provide an advanced telepresence system to help eleven community health centers obtain access to specialty care. Other funding for $80,706 brings the total project cost to $233,788.
This DLT to the Center for Telehealth will provide specialty care to nine USDA-designated Strike Force counties plus two mobile Health Wagons will canvass six counties to provide on-site primary care and telemedicine video conferencing with specialty doctors and clinicians.
Rural Development DLT funds for $375,000 will be used to expand the existing telemedicine program in Alaska. The funds will help 24 villages provide rural patients with access to medical specialists. Rural patients will also have access to mental, behavioral, and lifestyle healthcare needs.
Another grant award for $494,518 will enable Avera Health www.avera.org in South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota to help under-staffed hospitals with Avera’s ePharmacy network. A live pharmacist will provide prescription review and pharmacy support 24/7 at 18 rural under staffed hospitals plus an automated dispensing machine will be deployed at each hospital.
For the complete awardee list, for HRSA FY 2016 Rural Health Grant Awards go to www.hrsa.gov/about/news/2016tables/ruralhealth and for the USDA Rural Development DLT grants to www.rd.usda.gov/files/DLT_2016_Awards.pdf.