Rural Project Examples: Telehealth
Other Project Examples

Updated/reviewed October 2022
- Need: To address the lack of mental healthcare options for rural veterans.
- Intervention: A telebehavioral health hub network was created to connect community mental health centers to the VA Medical Center.
- Results: More than 3,000 telehealth appointments have been made, saving hundreds of veterans time and money.

Added August 2022
- Need: With the nearest hospital more than an hour away, the local community health center in rural Jackman, Maine struggled to maintain its ability to offer 24/7 care to due to staffing and budgetary challenges.
- Intervention: Critical Access Integrated Paramedics provide urgent care to patients after hours and on weekends.
- Results: The Jackman Community Health Center has been able to offer round-the-clock care to clinic patients, while also increasing the level of EMS service available to the community.

Updated/reviewed May 2020
- Need: Improve healthcare access for school-aged children in a rural and underserved Indiana county.
- Intervention: Working with several rural school districts and the state's rural health association, an Indiana county healthcare system used school-based telehealth to expand access for acute illness.
- Results: As of May 2019, Greene County General Hospital in rural Linton, Indiana, has expanded primary care access by offering school-based telehealth in 2 elementary and 1 middle school in 3 of the county's 5 school districts.

Updated/reviewed January 2020
- Need: Rural areas in Mississippi often lack adequate access to specialty healthcare services such as emergency medicine, stroke neurology, pediatric specialists and psychiatrists.
- Intervention: The University of Mississippi Medical Center created the Center for Telehealth to deliver quality specialty services through telehealth video conferencing and remote monitoring tools to the underserved areas of Mississippi.
- Results: The program has been successfully implemented throughout many of the state's rural hospitals and has reduced transfers and geographic barriers for patients.

Updated/reviewed December 2019
- Need: Decrease hospital readmissions and emergency room visits for patients in rural Tidewater, Virginia.
- Intervention: After inpatient admission or ER visit, identify at-risk patients to offer enrollment in remote monitoring and disease self-management education and coaching, with a special focus on behavioral health wellness.
- Results: Decreased readmissions and ER visits paired with high patient satisfaction scores.

Updated/reviewed January 2019
- Need: To ensure the quality and sustainability of rural West Central Missouri's health services through the use of technology.
- Intervention: The Health Care Coalition of Lafayette County convened a Health Information Technology (HIT) workgroup to establish electronic medical and prescription records, telemedicine capabilities, and training for Lafayette County and surrounding areas.
- Results: The workgroup fully equipped a local emergency department with HIT, launched electronic prescriptions for nearly a dozen Lafayette County providers, and identified acute needs hindering the adoption of electronic health records.
For examples from other sources, see: