UVA Health has received nearly $4 million to expand access to healthcare for rural Virginians.
UVA Health is one of six hospitals and health systems to receive grant funding to implement and expand remote patient monitoring programs for more than 6,500 patients statewide. The $3.943 million grant, awarded by the Virginia Hospital Research and Education Foundation, will benefit patients in all six regions designated as “rural” by the Virginia Rural Health Transformation Program.
“We are deeply grateful for this investment in rural health and for the opportunity to expand remote patient monitoring to more patients across the commonwealth,” said Novella Thompson, assistant chief of population health at UVA Health. “This support will allow us to bring high-quality care closer to home, reach people who may otherwise face barriers to accessing care and build new programs for patients with complex health needs.”
The grant will enable UVA Health leaders to build their capacity to care for patients across different specialties.
“This award will enable us to increase the number of patients monitored and build new programs that support high-risk pregnant mothers and patients with diabetes, epilepsy and other conditions,” said Dr. Karen Rheuban, the co-founder, director and namesake of the Karen S. Rheuban Center for Telehealth.
The Virginia Rural Health Transformation Program is part of a federal initiative to strengthen healthcare in rural communities. UVA Health was one of the recipients of its first-year awards, aimed at patient monitoring. The program will also recruit and retain rural physicians and provide “Food is Medicine” services to hundreds across the commonwealth.
According to a UVA Health report presented to the University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors, the health system has reached nearly 1 million telehealth visits since the program began in 1995. UVA Health providers see patients as young as 5 days old and as old as 101 years. They see patients in specialties ranging from family medicine to psychiatry to surgery.
Source: news.virginia.edu
