Contact: Christine Feroli (202) 401-0080
WASHINGTON – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently announced that USDA is investing in 18 projects in 16 states to use communications technology to expand access to health care, substance misuse treatment and advanced educational opportunities.
USDA is awarding $4.7 million in Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT) program grants to support 11 distance learning and seven telemedicine projects.
“These investments will help provide better health care and educational opportunities for rural residents,” Vilsack said. “Hospitals, schools and training centers across the country are successfully using telecommunications to deliver quality educational and medical services. Telemedicine, for example, can help treat patients who are struggling with opioid and other substance use disorders that disproportionately affect rural areas by allowing rural hospitals to connect with resources in other health care facilities across the country to better diagnose and treat individuals.”
In Wisconsin, Ministry Health Care, Inc. is receiving a $432,258 grant to expand Ministry Health Care’s Advanced Practice Nurse Practitioners (APNP) telemedicine program to clinics across Clark, Forest, Lincoln, Marathon, Portage, Vilas, and Waupaca counties. Due to a shortage of Family Practice and General Internal Medicine physicians in the rural hospitals and clinic sites, this telemedicine project will allow APNPs in rural areas to communicate directly with physicians in other areas who will consult on cases and provide direction when needed. This telemedicine project will support 1 hub and 15 end-user sites. As the program evolves over the next three years, Ministry Health Care envisions being able to add therapeutic services; such as dietary and diabetic counseling, tele-psychiatry, post-hospitalization, post-surgical follow-up and cardiac stress testing. This project will allow these rural clinics and hospitals secure additional staffing where normally a loss of a single provider could result in the closure of a clinic.
USDA Rural Development has provided $239.5 million for 729 DLT projects in rural areas nationwide since 2009. Funding for each project is contingent upon the recipient meeting the terms of the grant agreement.
USDA Rural Development’s funding continues to have a dramatic impact on rural communities across Wisconsin. During the past year, USDA Rural Development invested nearly $577 million on essential public facilities, small and emerging businesses, water and sewer systems, and housing opportunities throughout rural Wisconsin. The agency’s investment helped create or retain more than 1,560 jobs; aided 3,000 families in buying their own homes; and assisted more than 80 communities in improving community facilities and upgrading local infrastructure. USDA Rural Development’s mission is to deliver programs in a way that will support increasing economic opportunity and improve the quality of life of rural residents. For more information on USDA Rural Development programs visit USDA’s web site at www.rd.usda.gov/wi.
