While the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion ensured health insurance for many U.S. citizens, rural areas still suffer from a unique set of healthcare challenges such as economic burdens, high rates of chronic illness, and insufficient access to providers. These issues have only intensified with COVID-19 depleting rural health resources at an alarming rate. 

With over 120 rural hospitals closing over the past decade and more than 40% operating at a negative margin, health leaders are tasked with implementing new strategies to address rural health deficiencies.

Recently Leah Farina, MEDITECH vice president of client services, had an opportunity to discuss the impact of virtual visits and telemedicine on patients and providers at Citizens Memorial Healthcare in Bolivar, Missouri. She spoke with Louis Harris, MD, a family medicine physician and Chief Medical Information Officer at CMH, a small, level III Trauma Center in southwest Missouri with 86 licensed beds, 32 primary and speciality services, and seven long-term care facilities serving seven counties.

Although most healthcare organizations have detailed disaster plans in place, everyone has been challenged by the difficult circumstances presented by the COVID-19 outbreak. Healthcare organizations are now tasked with surging volumes of patients while confronting equipment shortages and evolving social distancing protocols.

To truly slow the spread of the virus and “flatten the curve”, providers need to find new ways of testing and treating patients quickly, while allowing these individuals to maintain a safe distance from others.

This post originally appeared on the CereCore blog. 

We are at an unprecedented time in our history, and much of the impact of COVID-19 has not been experienced in our lifetime. Most health systems have well-established crisis and disaster plans that encompasses IT, but these plans haven’t been tested to this degree until now.

The COVID-19 outbreak presents an unprecedented challenge to the medical community — and the pandemic has shaken many of the basic functions of society. It has been an inspiration to see healthcare experts and front-line providers maintain their vigilance and professionalism under exceedingly trying conditions.

The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to test modern healthcare in ways never seen before. Physicians and nurses worldwide are being called to service, risking their own well-being to help an alarming volume of ill and worried patients. How we manage this emergency depends largely upon the quality of tools available to help us improve safety for our patient and clinician communities.

These tools include technologies that can help slow the spread of this new, highly transmissible virus through social distancing, allowing us to work with patients to determine the most appropriate venue of care.