USDA offers grants for health care services and training

Assistant to the Secretary for Rural Development Anne Hazlett announced Jan. 19 the U.S. Department of Agriculture is awarding 72 grants totaling $23.6 million through the Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grant Program. The program offers e-connectivity that will provide virtual access to job training, educational and health care opportunities for rural communities.

“Under Secretary (Sonny) Perdue’s leadership, USDA is committed to being a strong partner in creating rural prosperity,” Hazlett said. “Connecting rural Americans to quality education and health care services is an innovative and important tool in our efforts to facilitate economic growth, job creation and quality of life in rural America.”

This program invests in equipment that uses broadband to help rural communities connect to educational and health care services. These services are seen as part of the foundation of a high quality of life and enable communities to overcome the effects of remoteness and low population density by connecting them to the rest of the world through high-speed internet.

The grants are supporting projects based in Alaska, Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia.

Several recipients will use the grants to help address opioid abuse treatment and mental health counseling. USDA recognizes that modernizing healthcare access for such recovery resources is vital to addressing rural prosperity.

Here are a few examples of projects USDA is supporting this year:

Lincoln Community Hospital and Nursing Home, of Hugo, Colorado, is receiving a $265,622 grant to establish a telemedicine network between hospitals and clinics in Colorado serving more than 20,000 residents in Adams, Cheyenne, Kit Carson, Lincoln and Phillips counties. Improved medical services include behavioral health, post-operative care and care management for chronic conditions. Mobile clinics will provide medical services at patients’ homes and will provide access to specialty care and tele-stroke services. Additionally, the telemedicine connections will help emergency departments at Lincoln Memorial Hospital’s behavioral health providers assess behavioral health issues more rapidly and move patients in crisis out of the departments and into more appropriate care settings.

A $120,582 grant will help create a distance-learning program at Nebraska’s Southeast Community College. Campuses in Lincoln, Milford and Beatrice will act as hubs and will connect to learning centers in Hebron, Plattsmouth and Falls City. Distance learning will focus on health care education and continuing education. Both are a high priority in these communities. The project will benefit rural communities by allowing SCC to increase capacity and provide more distance learning courses.

Northwestern Oklahoma State University gets $231,983 in Rural Development funds to purchase video conferencing equipment to provide interactive distance learning services. The project will benefit two hubs and five end-user sites in seven communities by providing video conferencing equipment. The university will provide college courses and professional development at partner high schools, provide remote access to continuing medical education at Cimarron Memorial Hospital, expand academic offerings at Panhandle State University and provide distance learning to Crabtree Correctional Facility for college courses and degree programs to better prepare inmates for work after release.

Hennessey, Oklahoma, School District 16 receives $266,419 in Rural Development funds to improve its distance-learning program by replacing aging video conferencing equipment and technology. Two hub sites in Oklahoma City will connect to eight end-user sites in schools in Hennessey, New Cordell and Pond Creek. The distance-learning program will have state-of-the-art video conferencing equipment. The program will focus on connecting schools to enable course sharing so all of the sites served will have access to a complete array of curricula.

Rural Development funds totaling $499,805 will help Stroud, Oklahoma, Independent School District 54 purchase video conferencing equipment to provide interactive distance learning services to 16 end-user sites in Bristow, Boswell, Davenport, Depew and Stroud. The project will provide servers, video conferencing units and software to allow the schools to share teachers, content and resources to support expanded course offerings, including college-level courses.

Clinton, Oklahoma, Independent School District 99 receives $470,383 in Rural Development funds to help purchase equipment to connect schools to the Support Oklahoma through Advancing our Reach, or SOAR, distance learning program. The Clinton Public Schools central office will be connected to 12 rural schools in Custer, McCurtain and Beckham counties. The project will provide students and teachers with an expanded selection of course content providers, curricula, training and resources.

Avera Health of South Dakota gets $484,271 in Rural Development funds to help implement a telehealth project to enhance labor and delivery and post-partum services for mothers and their babies. The end-user sites are 11 rural hospitals in South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota. New equipment will be able to monitor a baby’s heart rate, which is a critical indicator of fetal health during the birthing process. When necessary, the baby’s heart rate information can be transported to Avera Health 24 hours a day, where specialists can assist at a critical time for mother and baby. Avera’s Best Beginnings Rural Obstetrics Connections Project will reduce brain damage, permanent injuries and even deaths during difficult pregnancies when something goes wrong and additional help is immediately needed. This project will greatly improve labor and delivery services in rural hospitals by making highly specialized and dedicated specialists available whenever they are needed.

An additional $128,045 Rural Development grant will help Avera Health implement an advanced telehealth project to provide access to telehealth pharmacy services. Avera will connect to end-user sites in Hutchinson and Spink Counties in South Dakota, Osceola, Iowa and Lincoln, Minnesota, with its hub in Minnehaha, South Dakota. The project will provide telehealth programs with 24-hour pharmacist support to review medication orders. This is a crucial step to prevent medication errors related to allergies, drug interactions and incorrect dosages.

Northwest Texas Healthcare System receives $427,113 in Rural Development funds to help the acute care hospital create a telemedicine project that will work with a consortium of seven health care facilities in the Texas Panhandle. The project will connect rural patients to telemedicine opportunities through video teleconferencing. It will operate under the designation Texas Panhandle Specialty Telemedicine Project and will offer higher levels of specialized care via telemedicine to rural patients in Collingsworth, Hansford, Hemphill, Ochiltree, Swisher and Wheeler counties. Northwest Texas Healthcare System will offer emergency, trauma, cardiac, stroke, hospital and psychiatric services.

USDA Rural Development provides loans and grants to help expand economic opportunities and create jobs in rural areas. This assistance supports infrastructure improvements; business development; housing; community services such as schools, public safety and health care; and high-speed Internet access in rural areas. For more information, visit rd.usda.gov.

Larry Dreiling can be reached at 785-628-1117 or [email protected].