(Leitchfield, KY) – Patients of the Twin Lakes Regional Medical Center will have the opportunity to experience a Norton’s Healthcare Specialist without ever leaving Leitchfield. New technology will make its way to TLRMC in June, 2012.
Compliments of a $238,398 grant, courtesy of USDA’s Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DTL) Program, Grayson and Carroll Counties will benefit from telemedicine.
Tom Fern, State Director for Rural Development, said the Norton’s Healthcare Foundation will receive the grant and distribute the monies. The DTL program is designed specifically to meet the educational and health care needs of rural America. Through loans, grants and loan/grant combinations, advanced telecommunications technologies provide enhanced learning and health care opportunities for rural residents.
“This program delivers educational and medical opportunities that are urgently needed in remote, rural areas,” said Fern. “These funds will ensure that rural Kentuckians have access to the same medical care that is available to residents in larger cities.”
The grant funds will be used to purchase the telemedicine equipment that will be installed at the Twin Lakes Regional Medical Center. Medical carts outfitted with video conferencing equipment and peripheral devices such as digital stethoscopes will connect to specialists operating laptop control stations at Norton Healthcare’s Louisville facilities.
The medical carts provide a way for large hospital specialists to be at the patient’s bedside for examination, consultation, referrals and prescriptions. Through a new video connection, the physicians also can access patient medical records and document their notes in the system. With an emphasis on pulmonary, cardiology, neurology, and critical care, this project plans to reduce the number of patient transfers, reduce the outmigration of patients outside of their communities and the risk of transferring critically ill patients. This project will decrease the overall cost of patient care while increasing the quality of personalized care.
Dr. John Kenny, Cardiac Specialist at Norton Healthcare, said this technology will not only allow real time care for patients but he said many of his patients did not have the gasoline money to drive an additional 60 miles from Leitchfield to Louisville. Kenny cited it would take some time to adjust to video patients. He said it will be different to be unable to touch his patients, but with time, he was sure to adjust.
TLRMC CEO Steve Meredith says the grant will ensure the technology for three years. He said the hospital already has staff in place that will be able to help implement the new technology. “This kind of venture is a way to do extreme resource and share expertise. We can’t discount what this will mean to people in rural communities. Because, people overlook sometimes what a financial burden it is to go 60 miles up the road. It’s exciting for all of us.”
Kentucky received five awards during this round of funding – including two distance learning awards and three telemedicine awards – which is the most this state has received in a given year since the program began in 1993. Kentucky’s five projects total nearly $1.4 million and will benefit rural residents in 13 counties.
