Carilion receives nearly $1M USDA telehealth grant

Roanoke-based Carilion Clinic announced Monday it received a nearly $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for its Telemedicine Expansion and Optimization Project.

The USDA awarded Carilion Clinic a $947,983 grant through its 2020 distance learning and telemedicine grant program. The grant will fund virtual care centers, teleneurology service access and portable telehealth video devices.

“We are honored to receive this grant and excited to get to work,” Dr. Steve Morgan, Carilion senior vice president and chief medical information officer, said in a statement. “This will allow us to build on our existing network, offering rural patients throughout Western Virginia increased access to high-quality primary and specialty care services.”

Virtual care centers will be established at the Carilion Family and Community Medicine sites in Galax and Wythe County and at Carilion Tazewell Community Hospital to offer telemedicine tools allowing rural patients to connect to specialty care. 

The grant will also expand inpatient and outpatient teleneurology offerings through Carilion’s hospitals in Franklin, Giles, Montgomery, Rockbridge and Tazewell counties. The health care system will also deploy 80 portable telehealth devices for patient use in primary care practices and assisted living centers. Patients without broadband access can use the devices to transmit health data and video via a local virtual care center or other Carilion facilities.

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