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The Forest County Potawatomi (FCP) Health and Wellness Center is pleased to announce that they have received a grant through the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin for nearly $49,484 to bring telemedicine capabilities into FCP tribal homes through the use of 3G/4G technology and digital equipment.
The grant was made possible through a combined effort between the FCP Health and Wellness Community Health staff, Administrative staff, IT staff and Cara Kulhanek, grant writer, for the tribe.
With this grant, FCP Health and Wellness is able to purchase a variety of equipment that will help in assisting those FCP tribal community members that take advantage of community health staff home visits. These include health care related visits from babies to elders and those with healthcare needs in between. With this grant stethoscopes will be purchased that can transmit lung and heart sounds to physicians at not only the FCP Health and Wellness, but to other health clinics, as well through a computer or other wireless connection.
Along with these stethoscopes, they will also purchase “Total Exam Cameras” (the size of a dry erase marker) that have the capability to allow for taking pictures of the eardrum and ear canal, inside the nose, inside the eye and inside the mouth. Other attachments that go along with this will be able to get close-ups of the skin for skin disorders and rashes. All of these pictures can be sent to physicians in the clinic or other clinics that can accept such data and saved to the patients electronic health record.
With the computer equipment that will be purchased, the FCP Health and Wellness Community Health employees will be able to access electronic medical records through a secure wireless web based entry on their laptops. Other devices will be available both at the FCP Health and Wellness Center and We Care facility in Carter to varying degrees with videoconferencing equipment, which will allow the physician to “meet” with a patient in this manner when appropriate.
Linda Helmick, FCP Health and Wellness administrator, is excited for this new venture into the 3G/4G capabilities with the FCP tribal community. “You can see that this can open up all kinds of opportunities for improving outreach to our community members. Given that FCP owns a technology company, One Prospect, and also owns a health system that strives to be innovative in its approaches to patient care; this provides an excellent opportunity for FCP to blaze the trail in telemedicine with homes in a rural setting.”
The FCP Community Health department currently provides services to the FCP community members through the FCP Health and Wellness and the We Care facility in Carter, Wis., providing: nursing care to members in their homes relating to diabetes; cancer; wound care; prenatal and infant care; and medication set-up and deliveries; among other areas. They also do follow-up blood pressure and blood sugar screenings for members whose Primary Care Providers (PCP) request monitoring.
“This grant will provide the Community Health staff with state-of-the-art equipment to use in the members’ homes to communicate health findings and concerns directly with their PCP at the Health and Wellness Center.” states Lorrie Shepard, FCP Community Health nurse coordinator. “The equipment will provide us with access to the client’s medical record while in the home, which will allow the staff to review the medical record and document the visit at the time of the visit - and not have to wait until we return to the FCP Health and Wellness Center.”
What were once available only at large academic centers will now be available for small town communities such as the Forest County Potawatomi. “We will be able to allow our nurses and CHR’s to truly be the eyes and ears of our physicians as well as specialty physicians in other locations,” states Helmick. “While this grant does not intend to replace face-to-face visits with nurses and doctors, it does provide us with another tool in our toolkit to achieve health goals and access to care.”
The FCP Health and Wellness Community Health Department hopes to be able to utilize their new equipment in the FCP tribal homes either late summer or early fall of this year.
By Lori Thomas, Potawatomi Traveling Times
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