Mississippi
North Mississippi Health Services
Type of Grant: TOP
Amount of Grant: $148,748
Non-Federal Support: $198,601
Date of Grant: October 1999-September 2002
Project Partners: Home Health Agency, Clinical Outcomes Department, Internal Medicine Associates, and Heart Institute Biomedical Services.
Contact: Cathy Smith
Phone: (662) 377-2499
The North Mississippi Health Services (NMHS), with support from TOP, utilizes telemedicine services including cameras, monitors, speakerphones, and several remote-sensing devices to monitor patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) in 17 counties in rural Mississippi. The equipment collects readings and transmits it to the telehome care nurse on each televisit. In addition, a computer program alerts nurses when a patient's vital signs stray outside of preset clinical parameters. In rural Mississippi, patients with CHF are often geographically isolated and receive inadequate medical attention because the region has 50% fewer physicians than the national average. As a result, telemedicine plays a major role in ensuring care is delivered in remote and underserved areas.
A $1500 unit placed in Ms. Blackwell's home, which is 15 miles from the closest medical facility, has a green and a red button that may be used to transmit vital signs and to initiate a virtual meeting with a nurse at the central station. Ms. Blackwell uses the telemedicine unit's videoconferencing facility to schedule regular meetings with Cathy Smith, a nurse and the coordinator of the telemedicine program at NMHS. Cathy Smith checks Ms. Blackwell's blood pressure, blood oxygen and blood sugar levels.
Hospitalizations and visits to NMHS have decreased by 50 percent among the 23 patients who currently use the telemedicine units. The intangible benefits, like those afforded to Ms. Blackwell, are more difficult to quantify, but could be indispensable to the 40,000 Americans who are diagnosed with CHF each year.
The station nurse monitors medical information fed from patients' homes to a central facility at NMHS on a 24-hour basis.
Mississippi
Oktibbeha County CTC
Type of Grant: CTC
Amount of Grant: $215,704
Total Non-Federal Support: $100,785
Date of Grant: October 2001-September 2002
Project Partners: National Bank of Commerce; Oktibbeha County Families First Resource Center; Mississippi State University; Kiwanis Club; Oktibbeha County Head Start; Even Start; Adult Basic Education; Oktibbeha County Health Department; Oktibbeha County Human Resources; Ministerial Association; Oktibbeha County Professional Development Center; Americorp Vista
Contact: Dr. Joan Butler
Phone: (662) 615-0033, (662) 324-4063
Email: jbutler@starkville.k12.ms.us
The Emerson Family School is a nontraditional school with a day care center, a place for monthly gatherings of the community, and classes for the entire family. After receiving a CTC grant, the Starkville School District established the Oktibbeha County CTC at Emerson.
After school classes for children as well as classes for parents are aimed at developing computer literacy skills to improve schoolwork and homework. One class for both parents and children teaches parents how the Internet can help children with schoolwork. Classes for adults also include software training.
Felicia Rutlidge, a 23-year-old single mother of two, drives 30 miles every day to use the computer resources at Emerson Family School. She typically spends about 25 hours a week learning applications like Excel, Word and Access. Between drafting cover letters, submitting job applications online and looking for nutritious recipes, her time at the CTC goes quickly.
"There is nothing like it in the state," says project director Dr. Joan Butler. "Its location in a public family school makes it open to everyone, irrespective of income, ethnicity or religious background."
