According to the “2016 USDA Rural Development Progress Report”, USDA’s Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT) program helps rural communities improve their access to healthcare and educational services. Since 2009, the Rural Utilities Service within USDA has provided $240 million for more than 730 DLT projects in rural areas.
In 2016, USDA led the Federal inter-agency effort to address the opioid crisis especially in rural areas. Increased access to healthcare and substance misuse treatment has been much of the focus of the latest 81 DLT projects.
A DLT telemedicine project is now taking place in Indiana. The Southern Hills Counseling Center www.southernhills.org in Jasper Indiana is using a $73,000 grant for a telemedicine system to make mental health services more available in several remote Indiana counties.
The network will not only give rural healthcare professionals the ability to connect in real-time with urban mental health specialists, but the counseling center connects to rural hospitals for psychiatric diagnoses and to support emergency care.
In Iowa, USDA Rural Development is partnering with the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics https://uihc.org to establish telemedicine sites at nearly 70 remote rural healthcare facilities in 46 counties across the state.
The rural healthcare facilities will receive almost $1 million in telemedicine equipment through a $498,970 DLT grant from Rural Development to provide telemedicine to about 15 sites plus the healthcare facilities will receive matching funds from the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
Also, the USDA’s Rural Development Program awarded the Delta Health Alliance http://deltahealthallinace.org a $1 million grant. The Alliance is using the funds to help the Leland Medical Clinic www.lelandmedicalclinic.org serving more than 2,700 patients to not only renovate the facility but also to upgrade their EHR system. Funds are also being used to improve the clinic’s telehealth services in order for the clinic to participate in the Mississippi Health Information Exchange www.ms-hin.ms.gov.
It was recently announced that the USDA Rural Development’s “Community Connect Grant” program www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/community-connect-grants is now accepting applications for FY 2017 with all applications to be received by March 13, 2017. The program helps fund broadband deployment into rural communities where it is not yet economically viable for private sector providers to deliver service.
Go to https://www.rd.usda.gov/files/USDARDPProgressReport2016.pdf to view the “USDA Rural Development 2016 Progress Report.
Go to www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/distance-learning-telemedicine-grants for more information on the Distance Learning and Telemedicine program.