Telecommunications
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Telecommunications
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DLT Awards - Nebraska2005 Grant Awards:Educational Service Unit # 15 Forty-one rural schools will connect to four hub sites providing teacher and technician training, educational training, job instruction, and job advancement opportunities. Interactive distance learning studio equipment will facilitate services to 4,476 students.
This project establishes distance learning studios at 15 rural schools. It will also provide teacher and technician training and will benefit the communities involved with educational training, job instruction, and job advancement opportunities for the citizens served by the school districts. A total of 2,516 students, 219 teachers, and almost 10,000 residents will benefit from the project. 2004 Grant Awards:Good Samaritan Hospital Foundation Contact: Lesley A. Bollwitt, 308-865-2703; Fax 308-865-2933 Mid-Nebraska Telemedicine Network (MNTN), established in 1995, will use RUS funds to expand and enhance current services currently. Barriers to specialty health care such as severe winter weather, lack of public transportation, long distances to travel, increased poverty and the increasing age of patients make this project essential. The project will focus on clinical services, distance education, teleradiology services and health information. The target population for this project includes 187,471 individuals who reside in the 28-county area. 2003 Grant Awards:Educational Service Unit # 5; Beatrice, NE Educational Service Unit # 5 will utilize RUS grant funds to expand existing school nursing services provided at twenty-one public schools located in Gage, Jefferson, and Thayer Counties in Southeastern Nebraska. The specific benefits to be gained through this project will include an increase in school nurse availability to students through two-way interactive video contact, an improved access to health care resources for students, faculty, and staff of the public schools through distance learning training courses, and increased health education classes for students. 2002 Award:Rural Health Partners, Inc d.b.a. Heartland Health
Alliance; Holbrook, Nebraska North Platte Nebraska Hospital Corporation, d.b.a.
Great Plains Regional Medical Center; North Platte, NE The North Platte Nebraska Hospital Corporation will use RUS funds to
expand a tele-radiology project that began in 1999. The first three phases
of a twelve-phase project have been completed. The initial phases, one
of which was funded by a RUS grant in FY 2000, have established the basic
electronic links between the central hub site and the participating facilities.
The funds from this grant will be used to purchase an Ultrasound Mini
Picture Archiving Communications System that will enable 14 rural hospital
to operate as though they had a radiologist on staff to read and interpret
moving ultrasound images in real-time. This system will require fewer
repeat exams, decreased turn-around time for results and diagnoses, less
travel for patients that need the services and a greater degree of confidence
in the diagnosis. It will also be used to provide training opportunities
for sonographers. The project service area includes 21 counties in Nebraska
and one county in Kansas and covers over 26,000 square miles. Of those
counties 15 have been determined to be Medically Underserved Areas by
the Department of Health and Human Services which stresses the dire need
for health professionals and services in the area. It is the combination
of an extremely large service area and the lack of medical providers that
underscores the need for this important project. Over 143,000 rural residents
have the potential to benefit from this project. 2001 Grant Awards:Crossroads Distance Learning Education Consortium;
Columbus, Nebraska Crossroads Distance Learning Education Consortium (CDLEC), is a consortium of school districts located in east-central Nebraska. CDLEC proposes to create an interactive video network to provide a broadened curriculum and better preparation of post-secondary education for the students, staff and community adults of the participating school districts. The school districts involved in this project include Columbus, David City, East Butler, High Plains, Humphrey, Osceola, Rising City, Schuyler, Shelby and Stromsburg. Educational Service Units (ESUs) are Nebraska's intermediary educational agencies, responsible for providing shared services such as staff development, special education services, technology and curriculum support to schools within their region. RUS grant funds in conjunction with matching funds from CDLEC, will be used to purchase digital equipment, compatible with current industry digital standards and circuits, to interconnect the schools with one another by cable, fiber optics, and/or copper wire. The anticipated benefits of this project include providing advanced placement and college-level courses to students; and involving the community in the use of technology for personal and career development. Mid-American Rehabilitation Telehealth Network c/o
Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital; Lincoln, Nebraska The Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital has been awarded a Rural Utilities Service Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT) Grant of $306,110 to use for a telemedicine project called the Mid-American Rehabilitation Telehealth Network (MRTN). Members of the MRTN include the: (1) Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital in Lincoln, Nebraska; (2) Wilber Care Center (Wilber, Nebraska); (3) Ashland Care Center (Ashland, Nebraska); and, (4) Fremont Area Medical Center (Fremont, Nebraska). The goal of this telehealth system is to assure that rural residents have immediate access to quality rehabilitation care. Specifically, a hub-and-spoke telehealth system that will link community care centers and long-term care centers for patient consultation and treatment; education for patients, care providers, families, and community members; support groups, and for family/patient visitation. Patients will be able to receive care from rehabilitation professionals without leaving their home area. Continuing education opportunities will also be offered including Certified Nursing Assistant and Licensed Practical Nurse Certification training, in-services, and Grand Rounds. Specialists at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital will collaborate on and share leading-edge technology with clinicians in the connecting rehabilitation departments. This project will benefit approximately 90,000 rural residents. Rural Health Partners, Inc., d.b.a Heartland Health
Alliance; Lexington, Nebraska Heartland Health Alliance (HHA) is a 32 member hospital network in Nebraska and northeast Kansas. HHA believes that in order to provide the best medical care to patients, medical staff must have access to medical and educational programming. Currently, six HHA hospitals have interactive video systems installed at their facilities. The purpose of this project is to install interactive video systems at eight additional HHA rural hospitals. The eight hospitals are: Boone County Health Center (Albion), Crete Municipal Hospital (Crete), Jefferson Community Health Center (Fairbury), Johnson County Hospital (Tecumseh), Phelps Memorial Health Center (Holdrege) Valley County Hospitals (Ord), Cherry County Hospital (Valentine), and Garden County Hospital (Oshkosh). The installation of these systems will assist the rural hospitals with expanding the local medical and educational programming opportunities and thus improve the medical care provided to the rural residents. The original six hospitals will also benefit from this project because the addition of the sites will enhance and expand their networking opportunities. This project has the potential to benefit approximately 33 physicians, 626 nurses and 23,899 rural residents. 2000 Awards:EDGERTON EXPLORIT CENTER, C/O EDGERTON EDUCATION
FOUNDATION, Aurora, Nebraska The Edgerton Education Foundation (EEF) plans to equip the Edgerton Explorit Center (EEC), which provides science, math and technology programming for students, teachers and families of Nebraska. The EEF plans to acquire equipment, software and instructional programming needed to create a distance learning hub which can produce and deliver science, math and technology programming via distance learning to the rural schools of Nebraska. The project includes three end-user sites at Clay Center, Doniphan and Superior, Nebraska. In addition to participating in this project as end-user sites, the schools will be linked to the Central Nebraska Distance Learning Consortium presently comprised of nine schools that already have distance learning classrooms. The number of K-12 students enrolled at the three schools are 1,228 with more than 25,281 residents that will be able to access two-way video-conferencing programs in Clay Center, Superior, Doniphan and the EEC in Aurora.
NORTH PLATTE NEBRASKA HOSPITAL CORPORATION, North
Platte, Nebraska Great Plains Regional Medical Center (GPRMC) will serve as fiscal agent for the North Platte Nebraska Hospital Corporation. The Center will serve as the focal point of this system. GPRMC is proposing to develop a wide area network pictorial archiving communication system (WAN PACS) for the transmission, interpretation, storage, and availability of CT, MRI, Nuclear and Ultrasound imaging modalities. It is anticipated that the project will improve the quality of health care for rural residents by making it possible for radiologists to manipulate images and interact with physicians in rural, isolated communities. 1999 Award:Chase 3000, Inc.; Imperial, Nebraska Chase 3000, Inc. (Chase) was established in 1996 to provide Internet service to rural residents of Chase County. Through its Rural America's Right to Equal (R.A.R.E.) Access project, Chase's project will provide approximately 400 rural households with access to high-speed communications and distance learning opportunities through the use of wireless technology. Chase plans to connect the hospital, the school, the library, and senior services to the network. Funds will be provided to install computer equipment and wireless equipment in area residents' homes, subsidized by funds from each household. In addition, Chase will provide training opportunities at its Learning Center to enable those people who have never used computer equipment to learn how to use the tools provided. 1998 Awards:Faith Regional Health Services Faith Regional Health Services is the applicant for this proposed project of the Northcentral Nebraska Telemedicine Network. An aging population is a major concern to rural Nebraska hospitals. Elderly patients generally have a limited ability to travel and require specialized services on a regular basis. The goal of the proposed telemedicine system to be funded by the RUS grant is to assure that everyone in the service area has immediate access to quality medical care. The eight hospitals involved serve a population of 86,000 residents. Educational Service Unit No. 5, Southeast Nebraska
Distance Learning Consortium The Southeast Nebraska Distance Learning Consortium will provide two-way interactive classrooms in eight high schools. This proposed project will link to forty-four high schools, four intermediate agencies, four community college sites, two state college sites, and the Nebraska Department of Education, which is fully funded, and in the implementation phase. The classrooms will provide opportunities for high school students and adults to participate in college courses and provide teacher and community training. Northeast Community College Northeast Community College is a state college that plans to provide interactive distance learning opportunities to 101 rural communities in a twenty county area, spread out over 14,000 square miles. Through the establishment of distance learning facilities that will serve 49 schools and 84,000 students, the college will provide learning opportunities to its constituents that will enable residents to stay close to their home areas. Research indicates that 90 percent of rural Nebraska high school students leave their communities after graduation. As the situation presently exists, the state of Nebraska expects population decreases in half of the counties served by the college. The potential benefits to the communities include increased retention of highly skilled and talented workers, attracting and retaining new businesses, and increasing the quality of life. Coursework offerings will include credit programs at all degree levels and non-credit continuing education courses, career enhancement and personal development courses. Courses to be offered include: business administration, nursing, industrial and liberal arts, agriculture, agribusiness, horticulture, education, trades, wellness, nutrition, leadership, and public administration. Educational Service Unit #13 Educational Service Unit No. 13 (ESU) acts as an intermediate school service district. The other participants in this project include nine local school districts located within ESU's service area and three institutions of higher education. ESU's service area has a population of 72,750 spread over 10,000 square miles. Most of these communities are separated from the nearest neighboring community by 25 to 50 miles of ranches and sandhills. Because of the sparse population, the schools in the area have small enrollments and staffs that lack the expertise to provide the range of instruction available in urban schools. RUS grant funds will provide videoconferencing equipment to expand the limited distance learning programs that currently exist. 1997 Award: Began Mercy Foundation, Inc. The rural hospitals in the project are a part of the Alegent Health System which is a consolidated operation of the Bergan Mercy Foundation located in Nebraska and Iowa. The goal of this teleradiology project is to provide three isolated rural areas with improved quality medical care in a more timely, efficient and beneficial manner. In addition to improved quality patient care, this project will also enhance recruiting and retention of rural health care professionals, strengthen the economic foundation the hospitals and increase the professional satisfaction of health care providers. The rural hospitals must be linked by teleradiology to the radiologists who provide coverage. The specific services to be provided are X-ray, CAT scan and ultrasound. The project entails connecting each of the end-users sites to the existing radiology physician group base site. The outcome and results expected to be realized from teleradiology include strengthening the financial performance of each of the rural hospitals through a shorter length of stay, appropriate level of care and a better utilization of the Emergency Departments. The increased savings to the patient will be beneficial by reducing the cost of health care and providing better access. There will be 128 miles of travel saved with this project. 1995 Grant Awards:(1) Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital The project will link 10 rural hospitals in northeast Nebraska. The system will provide continuous access to teleradiology, trauma and emergency care. (2) Bloomfield County Schools Telecommunications links will enable ten schools and two community colleges to share teachers for instruction vocational studies and college preparatory courses. In addition, schools will use the system for adult education, college courses, job interviews and nurse training. 1994 Grant Award:Educational Service Unit #15 An educational consortium consisting of 9 high schools, McCook Community College and the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture will be linked by two-way interactive video to provide a wide range of high school courses, college-level courses, adult education, and specialized agriculture instruction. In addition, pupils at 6 elementary schools which are adjacent to participating high schools will have access to special classes in languages and gifted and talented student programs, Medical inservice and training for personnel in rural hospitals and clinics, including emergency units and school nurses will also be offered. The system will employ analog interactive classroom equipment which will be linked via a linear broadband transmission over fiber optic lines which is provided by 6 different telephone companies and a cable TV company.
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