-Healthcare Informatics
“For the first time, starting in 2019, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will reimburse healthcare providers for certain virtual care visits with patients, regardless of the patient’s location—a move that has drawn praise from many healthcare leaders as helping to advance telehealth.”
-mHealth Intelligence
“Connected care advocates are lobbying Congress to pass the Reducing Unnecessary Senior Hospitalizations (RUSH) Act of 2018, which aims to reduce rehospitalizations at qualified skilled nursing facilities by giving them more incentives to use telemedicine and telehealth to improve patient care.”
-Palmetto Care Connections
Telehealth Awareness Week is an initiative led by the South Carolina Telehealth Alliance (SCTA). Throughout the week of October 15-19, 2018, several events were held by partners of SCTA including Palmetto Care Connections (PCC). PCC partnered with Bamberg School District One to host an event on Thursday, October 18, at Bamberg- Ehrhardt High School in observance of Telehealth Awareness Week. This event highlighted Bamberg School District One’s School-Based Telehealth Program and included a live telehealth demonstration conducted by Danette McAlhaney, MD, Bamberg Family Practice and Blake Williams, RN, Bamberg-Ehrhardt High School Nurse. Speakers of this event included Kathy Schwarting, Palmetto Care Connections Chief Executive Officer, Phyllis Schwarting, Bamberg School District One Superintendent, Trent Kinard, Bamberg County Councilman, and Rick Foster, MD, Alliance for a Healthier SC Executive Director.
School-Based Telehealth allows students to see a healthcare provider in a school setting reducing the number of school absenteeism for students and missed work days for parents. The healthcare provider is able to examine the patient (student) through the telehealth equipment operated by the telepresenter or school nurse.
Pictured at the front of the room: Kathy Schwarting, Palmetto Care Connections Chief Executive Officer, Danette McAlhaney, MD (on the cart screen) Bamberg Family Practice, Blake Williams, RN, BEHS School Nurse, and AJ McAlhaney (live demonstration patient)
Telehealth equipment is located at all three schools in Bamberg School District One and operated by the school nurses trained by Palmetto Care Connections. When a student needs to be seen for acute care or chronic care conditions, the school nurse can use the telehealth equipment at the school to connect with a local family practitioner at Bamberg Family Practice to complete the examination. The Medical University of South Carolina Center for Telehealth is used as an alternative provider if the local family practitioner is not available.
Pictured from left to right: Trent Kinard, Bamberg County Councilman, Kathy Schwarting, Palmetto Care Connections Chief Executive Officer, Phyllis Schwarting, Bamberg School District One Superintendent, and Nancy Foster, Mayor, City of Bamberg
At this event, Palmetto Care Connections also received a proclamation from Bamberg County Council proclaiming the third week of October as Telehealth Awareness Week in Bamberg County.
“We are very excited to work with the Bamberg County Council to promote the use of telehealth in the schools as well as in local provider clinics. We want to make sure that our children are healthy and read to learn in the school environment. Telehealth technology in the schools can reduce absenteeism and reduce unnecessary emergency department usage,” said Kathy Schwarting, CEO of Palmetto Care Connections and Co-Chair of the SCTA.”
“We want every citizen in South Carolina to at least know what telehealth services are available to them, and their loved ones. Our legislators are supporting this so everyone has access to high quality care, urban, suburban and rural citizens,” said Dr. McElligott, Co-Chair of the SCTA.
Palmetto Care Connections is a nonprofit organization, based in Bamberg, SC, that promotes the use of telehealth to improve access to care in rural and underserved communities. PCC also works with healthcare providers across South Carolina to ensure they have affordable and reliable broadband connectivity that is needed to implement telehealth services.
Learn more about Telehealth Awareness Week at www.sctelehealth.org .
Learn more about Palmetto Care Connections at www.palmettocareconnections.org.
-Post and Courier
“The Medical University of South Carolina will provide health care to employees of the State Ports Authority with a new agreement announced Tuesday.
MUSC will staff and operate a health clinic that will serve hundreds of port employees at the SPA’s new campus in Mount Pleasant, which is expected to be completed in December.
Workers will be able to access virtual urgent care services and set up telehealth “visits” with MUSC providers. Those services should be available to all SPA employees, said Bob Mozdean, senior vice president of human resources for the the state maritime agency. But employees will still be able to choose their preferred health care provider, he said.”
-John Lewis, SCETV
“Before a ceremonial bill signing at the state house, Gov. Henry McMaster said he hopes to see telehealth continue to grow across the state.
“I look forward to the day we have total telemedicine in the state, when all the people on their cell phone can have access to medical care,” said McMaster.
Senate Bill 345, which expands practice abilities and cuts regulations for advanced practice nurses (APRNs), went into effect July 1.
As the law’s supporters gathered in the governor’s office Wednesday, including health administrators, nurse practitioners, and state legislators, the governor said the law’s greatest impact will be in rural communities.”
-WSAV3
“The Department of Mental Health serves more than 100,000 citizens with mental illnesses, but getting services to those clients isn’t always easy.
The department received $600,000 to expand its telehealth program, which allows the department to offer mental health services to patients no matter where they are in the state.
“It’s a national issue, for psychiatric patients who present themselves in an emergency setting in a hospital or emergency room and that hospital doesn’t have access to a psychiatrist, ” said Mark Binkley the Deputy Director of Community Mental Health Services
Patients would wait for days to speak to a psychiatrist, but telemedicine is helping prevent those problems by allowing patients to meet with doctors even if they’re out of town.”
–ABC News4
“There has been one flu related death in the Lowcountry, seven in the Midlands, three Upstate, and four in Pee Dee this week according to DHEC.
In addition, Charleston County alone has had more than 300 flu cases reported in the last week and in Greenville County, almost a thousand cases were reported according to DHEC.
Due to the Lowcountry experiencing higher than usual flu cases that has resulted in 15 flu related deaths in South Carolina, MUSC Health has now implemented flu clinics and telehealth services to patients already ill from the flu.”
–Fierce Healthcare
The Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 in favor of repealing net neutrality regulations, an expected outcome that prompted renewed concern from some about the impact on telehealth and remote monitoring.
-The Post and Courier
The Charleston Dorchester Mental Health Center recently won an award in Nashville, Tennessee, for its work in the “telehealth” field.
According to a press release about the recognition, in 2016, the center partnered with the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston County EMS and the S.C. Telehealth Alliance to offer patients “on-site emergency mental health assessments in real-time.”
-mHealth Intelligence
“The Medical University of South Carolina has been named a Telehealth Center of Excellence, and given a three-year federal grant to become a model for telehealth and telemedicine programs across the country.
The Health and Human Services Department’s Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) announced the designation on Oct. 3, along with a $600,000-a-year grant to help MUSC develop its program, which now serves some 200 sites across the state.”
Palmetto Care Connections (PCC) is the telehealth network for South Carolina that offers telehealth support services to rural and underserved health care providers.
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