Roanoke-based Carilion has received its second major grant in a month that will help improve its primary and specialty care services.
The grant announced today at a noon-hour news conference will expand telemedicine and Covid-19 testing. The $363,000 CARES Act funds from Tazewell County, where Carilion has a hospital. CARES Act funds offer federal relief for those navigating the Covid-19 pandemic.
In mid-October, Carilion was awarded $947,983 for its Telemedicine Expansion and Optimization Project by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Mike Hymes of the Tazewell County Board of Supervisors and a Carilion Tazewell Community Hospital Board Member says, “The Board of Supervisors remains committed to supporting our emergency health response by strengthening testing resources across our community. We … are grateful for the sacrifices its employees make, on a daily basis, to battle the coronavirus.”
Nancy Howell Agee, president and CEO of Carilion Clinic, says, “We will use the CARES Act funds to build on our existing telemedicine network and improve access to high quality care close to home.”
Carilion swiftly transitioned to telehealth appointments at the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic. While the system has safely returned to in-person appointments, it is still connecting with patients virtually, and telehealth is here to stay. It will continue to be an incredibly valuable tool to care for patients, especially in rural communities throughout the region.
This is the latest in a series of telemedicine announcements aimed to improve access to care, but it is not the last.
In October, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a $947,983 Distance Learning and Telemedicine grant to aid in Carilion’s Telemedicine Expansion and Optimization Project. In 2017 the USDA awarded Carilion a $434,182 grant to deliver telemedicine to 12 rural counties in southwest Virginia.
The grant was one of five the agency awarded to help provide treatment for the growing opioid epidemic in rural central Appalachia. The program enabled patients struggling with opioid addiction in remote areas to speak with Roanoke psychiatrists through tablets in their local clinicians’ offices.
About the Writer:
Dan Smith is an award-winning Roanoke-based writer/author/photographer and a member of the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame (Class of 2010). His blog, fromtheeditr.com, is widely read and he has authored seven books, including the novel CLOG! He is founding editor of a Roanoke-based business magazine and a former Virginia Small Business Journalist of the Year (2005).
