IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently announced that the Obama Administration is investing in rural telecommunications equipment to help expand access to education, create jobs, and improve health care in 25 states. The announcement includes a project to enhance access to medical specialists via telemedicine in 19 rural clinics in the Columbia Gorge region of Eastern Oregon and Washington.

"These small, rural clinics will now be able to provide a much more comprehensive array of health care services and consultation with specialists located in larger medical centers,” said USDA Rural Development State Director Vicki Walker. "This USDA investment in innovation will help rural clinics overcome several challenges with providing comprehensive and coordinated medical services in small, isolated communities while helping rural residents access the specialized care they need."

Users must establish an online account before they can submit applications for payment guarantees as well as submit the following via the Internet -- assignments of payment guarantees, amendments to guarantees, evidence of export reports and notices of default.

"Enhancing the quality of rural health care is a top priority for USDA Rural Development," Conner said. "We are pleased to help seven more rural hospitals and medical centers use these funds to develop state-of-the-art electronic medical record-keeping systems to improve the quality of care in their communities."

Effective immediately, Combs will take over all official duties in the job. According to the department press release, he will coordinate integration, training and enforcement of all aspects of information management and information technology programs at USDA. Combs will also serve as management advisor and senior consultant on policies, standards and guidance.

Telehealth programs will get a little more than half of the funds--about $8.3 million, split between 33 programs. For example, the Low Country Health Care Network will receive almost $323,000 to buy telehealth equipment for its most rural providers, plus to set up a training program for rural providers.

Rural areas in six states will get $6 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to help finance 10 telehealth projects. The projects will deliver health and education services to rural areas currently lacking adequate healthcare in the Delta region.

Eligible healthcare organizations and institutions of research and higher education will get those grants under the Rural Development's Delta Health Care Services Grant Program. The funds will address unmet health needs in the Delta region, which comprises the 252 counties and parishes within the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee that are served by the Delta Regional Authority.

Rural healthcare providers will be able to improve their telehealth connections with patients and communities thanks to more than $8.6 million in grant money provided by the US Department of Agriculture.  The telehealth grants are part of a $20 million program that covers both healthcare projects and distance learning infrastructure for rural students. Of the 65 grants in this round of funding, 31 are related to telehealth, announced Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced last week.

"These grants connect rural communities to educational programs and medical services that bridge the miles between doctors and patients and provide classroom teaching at the touch of a button," said Conner.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says for too long, rural areas have gotten the short end of the stick where healthcare and broadband internet access are concerned. Over the past two years the agency has been using recovery act money to improve that access.

Vilsack announced the latest round of grants on Monday which will, among other things, help rural medical specialists provide advanced diagnosis for patients.

Through the three-year tele-home project, Mercy - a network of hospitals and physician offices in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma - will target patients with the most chronic ailments, including diabetes, heart disease and respiratory disease. The grant monies will fund monitoring devices so patients can electronically transmit results from home via computer or telephone line directly to their physician.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Utilities Services Distance Learning and Telemedicine program is contributing to the expansion of telemedicine services by awarding a $213,564 grant to Essentia Health, an integrated health system serving patients in Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota and Idaho. The telehealth award will grant 21 rural clinics and two hospital sites access to the telehealth network within Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Dakota. Essentia Health applied for this grant in June and plans to match the award.

A press release says Dartmouth-Hitchcock and its Center for Telehealth have been awarded two grants totaling $998,356. Telemedicine equipment will be sent to six counties in rural New Hampshire and seven counties in rural Vermont. Counties receiving the equipment include Orange, Orleans, Rutland, Windham, and Windsor counties in Vermont and Cheshire, Coos, Grafton, Hillsborough, Merrimack, and Sullivan counties in NH.

The grant presentation was to be this afternoon.

Telemedicine provides patients who are in crisis at rural hospitals with access to nurses and other caregivers from CHI Health hospitals. The caregivers are known as rapid-response teams.

“Any of our schools can use this service,” Jefferson-Lewis Board of Cooperative Educational Services Superintendent Jack J. Boak said. “Our students can use this to receive 15 or more credits in high school.”

“The Community Connect program serves rural communities where broadband service is least likely to be available, but where it can make a tremendous difference in the quality of life for citizens,” Conner said. “The projects funded by these grants will help rural residents tap into the enormous potential of the Internet.”

The Office of Management and Budget and the Treasury Department today announced they recertified the departments of Interior, Treasury and Transportation and added USDA to be the support pylons of its shared services initiative.