Clarke County Hospital in Osceola, Iowa and the Veterans Administration in Des Moines recently partnered in a telemedicine exchange offering a rural Veteran a much-needed cardiology consultation. While telemedicine services are not unique to Clarke County Hospital nor the V.A. – both of whom have offered the services for almost a decade each – a new collaboration between the two organizations offers potentially life-saving opportunities for rural veterans needing access to V.A. consultations and diagnostics.
Through Clarke County Hospital’s outpatient clinic, patients in south-central Iowa and surrounding communities now have access to V.A. telemed services that before were only available through central Iowa, metro V.A. locations. These metro-based consultations often required patients to drive or to be transported for hours each way for important, sometimes life-saving, diagnostics. With their first co-oped telemed visit in June, the V.A., Clarke County Hospital, and the ailing Veteran were able to complete a cardiology session within a fraction of the travel and time previously needed for such a visit.
Brian Evans, Clarke County Hospital’s CEO said, “CCH is the first Critical Access Hospital in Iowa to partner with the VA through Telemed Services. We are very excited about this new service opportunity because it allows these patients to be able to stay closer to home for visits.”
Clarke County Hospital has committed to offering Cardiology telemed visits at this time and look to add other VA providers in the future.
Telemedicine services through Clarke County Hospital are currently available Monday-Friday in their newly remodeled Outpatient Clinic at 800 S. Fillmore, Osceola, Iowa 50213.
For more information about the Clarke County Hospital Telemedicine services, contact Ashley Davis, RN BSN, Patient Care Coordinator / Telemedicine at 641-342-5333 or Dennis Blazek, IT Manager at 641-342-5393.
