Support to Rural Hospitals and Community Providers

Project Overview

Rural hospitals face persistent challenges in accessing specialty care due to difficulties in recruiting specialists, leading to patient transfers, limited care options, and poorer health outcomes. Patients in these areas often endure long waits and extensive travel to consult specialists, further limiting their access to timely and quality care. E-Consults offers a practical solution by enabling the delivery of specialty care to rural settings. These asynchronous electronic consultations allow healthcare providers to securely share patient information, including medical charts, imaging, and diagnostic results, with specialists. Specialists then provide expert advice on patient evaluation and treatment. A key advantage of e-consults is their flexibility, allowing specialists to review cases at their convenience, ensuring both efficiency and accessibility.

In order to support the bedside team at critical access hospitals in Mississippi and enabling them to provide care for patients locally in their communities we have designed and implemented a 24/7 Tele Critical Care project. Under this project, bedside providers both in the Emergency Department and on the wards can connect with board certified critical care physicians and discuss care for their patients via Audio/video visits facilitated through mobile carts. The pilot supported by funding from HRSA went live on November 7, 2023 at Copiah Medical Center and April 1, 2024 at Greenwood Leflore Medical Center in Mississippi.