How to Expand Healthcare Access in Underserved Rural Communities

Healthcare delivery today is heavily dependent on digital systems and applications, all of which require fast, reliable connectivity. But in some rural communities, connectivity can be hard to come by, making it difficult for healthcare providers to give their patients the level of care they need.

The outlook, from some observers, remains dire for rural residents. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), rural residents are more likely than urban residents to die prematurely from heart disease, cancer, injury, chronic lower respiratory disease, and stroke. And it doesn’t look likely to get better in 2022, as noted in Forrester Predictions 2022: Healthcare:  healthcare disparities will harm rural Americans at twice the rate of urban Americans. The federal push to bridge the gap between underserved populations and access to care is underway, but it won’t be enough to achieve health equity for all.

This is why some healthcare providers in Appalachia formed a non-profit consortium. Their goal was to improve care in rural areas by expanding access to high-speed connectivity at healthcare facilities. Analysts agree that telemedicine is a big part of the future of healthcare, as Frost and Sullivan predict:  Telemedicine will become the new standard of care to remotely assess a large population of patients.

Access to fiber connectivity had a life-changing impact on Appalachian residents served by the Consortium. For the first time, many of the more rural Consortium healthcare providers can offer their patients access to specialists and medical research institutes via telemedicine.

Now, they can remotely connect their rural patients with burn and stroke support units for treatment recommendations and consultations. “Our members can also connect with genetic testing service and an Electronic Intensive Care Unit (eICU), a form of telemedicine that uses state-of-the-art technology to provide an additional layer of critical care service,” the project manager notes.

Connectivity is helping improve patient outcomes by providing fast, reliable access to electronic health records (EHRs). The EHRs are a key factor, as the information within them can radically improve outcomes. EHRs contain details of an individual’s medical history, prescribed medications, allergies, x-rays and other radiology images, lab results and existing treatment plans.

The improved connectivity also eliminated some dangerous delays related to transportation. Patients who previously had to be transported via ambulance now receive life-saving consultations and treatment recommendations immediately, at rural healthcare providers’ locations. “Think about it like this,” says the project manager. “If you give birth in a rural area, and there’s an issue, the baby may have to be transported two or three hours to a pediatric hospital. A lot can go wrong in that time. Today, the parents and their healthcare providers can consult via telemedicine with a neonatal specialist at a nationally recognized hospital.”

Consortium patients in rural communities now have access to the same level of specialized care that patients receive in urban locations, as healthcare providers can now deliver higher quality care via telemedicine and other remote services.

Learn more about the Consortium’s efforts in rural healthcare.