About the Alaska Rural Telehealth Network

Mission

The mission of the ARTN is to provide its members - small, rural, and remote hospitals and clinics across Alaska - with access to modern telecommunications capabilities and medical equipment and specialty physicians to provide a broader range of access to improved healthcare services for the communities and residents served by ARTN member facilities.

The ARTN also aims to catalyze provision of significant training and continuing education opportunities for hospital staff via video conferencing technologies and the capabilities of the ARTN's education-oriented IP video framework. ARTN-connected sites have found that the network eases future expansion into varied telehealth services. Examples include tele-stroke programs, E-ICU programs (distance ER and ICU consultation relying on local, live video conferencing capability) and real-time at-a-distance laboratory services. Real progress has been made across the ARTN for tele-behavioral services for community (or region) residents in need of confidential mental health services.

Goals & Objectives

  • Improved access and quality of care for rural residents
  • To provide quality, efficient Internet service
  • To provide VoIP communications systems
  • Enable multiple vendors provide rural hospitals and clinics with effective, quality radiology services at a reasonable cost and, in the not too distant future, other, expanded telehealth specialty services
  • Improve member service delivery, quality and efficiency by sharing human and capital resources across the network, standardizing systems to ensure compatibility, aggregating demand, and improving access to multiple vendors
  • Accommodate alternative business models (i.e., local reads with archive capability; a combination of local and remote reads; or reliance only on a remote read/imaging service)

Project Initiatives

The following initiatives are being accomplished through this project:

  • Upgrading existing equipment to a common, computed radiography standard, add local, secure Picture Archive and Communications System (PACS) capability that will provide short-term digital image storage that can be linked to significant, central storage capacity at the Wide Area Network (WAN) hub (or Core) that will provide long term, secure, redundant digital images for quick access by hospital and clinic health information management staff.
  • Upgrading existing telecommunications equipment and services to enable reliable, efficient teleradiology, videoconferencing (training), voice, and data services.
  • Developing a service Core that will quickly and efficiently interconnect service providers, while also providing for local and network systems maintenance (either via the Internet or on site).
  • Creating a purchasing group that can more effectively contract for radiology services, enabling hospitals and clinics that are a part of the ARTN Wide Area Network to obtain reliable, high quality diagnostic services 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The expected outcome of this project is that all ARTN members will have access to modern teleradiology equipment, upgraded and fully compatible telecommunications systems, and multiple service providers so that patients may have access to timely, effective, quality radiology services at a reasonable cost in some of Alaska's most remote communities.

Alaskans Impacted by the ARTN

It is estimated that the ARTN will, at the very least, provide teleradiology services for the very first time to - or upgrade existing teleradiology services for - approximately 95,882 persons residing in the twelve communities/regions where member clinics and hospitals are located. This number means that the teleradiology / telehealth network would provide access - and increased quality services - to approximately 16% of the state's total population. If the urban service areas' population is removed from this equation (i.e., the Anchorage / Mat-Su Valley, Fairbanks and Juneau Census areas), it is calculated that approximately 57% of Alaska's rural and remote population would be served through this project. These numbers do not capture services that will be provided to increased community populations due to annual tourism visitation and seasonal employment - which can also be quite significant.

This project is viewed as important by Alaska Rural Telehealth Network members in that it will provide each hospital and clinic with significant improvement in the quality of care these facilities can offer to their community residents. This includes direct impacts on both local primary care capabilities (through the community health clinics and hospital outpatient clinics) and emergency care. Individual hospitals and clinics will institutionally benefit, in that this new / upgraded telecommunications system will increase facility sustainability through an increase in shared services and shared system operating costs with other like facilities and the eventual elimination of costly wet film processing to produce radiological images.

This project is viewed as important by patients living in the communities and regions served by ARTN members because ARTN services will increase the timeliness and effectiveness of both outpatient (primary care clinic) and inpatient treatment (i.e., emergency or lengthier hospital-based treatment situations) while potentially decreasing the need for - or risk of - very expensive travel to larger tertiary care facilities in such regional hubs as Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, or Seattle. This patient travel takes residents away from their natural family supports, as well as often requiring transport in times of dangerous or minimal weather conditions or the transport of patients who have health complaints that make travel difficult, if not impossible. Further, often family members who wish to be with their loved ones must find transportation to the urban tertiary care hospital where the patient/family member has been transferred.

Training and Other Telehealth-Related Opportunities

From the outset the ARTN has greatly increased and expanded training and continuing education opportunities through the strong videoconferencing capabilities of the network.

In addition, the ARTN has the capacity to grow and provide additional critical services locally, avoiding travel to urban hubs, services such as telecounseling, telepharmacy, and teleconsultations with a variety of medical specialists, tele-stroke programs, and the potential of life-saving E-ICU distance diagnosis and treatment programs. Such expanded services will also mean an increase in locally available behavioral health services, and more direct access to prescriptions and the ability to consult with hospital-based pharmacists who specialize in preparations of chemotherapy drugs for patients, and can assist local pharmacies and clinical staff, as necessary, in the care of local cancer patients, again avoiding expensive and difficult time away from home communities. These expanded features will benefit both patients and local care providers significantly.

Measurable Outcomes

Measurable objectives for this project include:

  • Prompt receipt of the contract radiologist's diagnosis of a patient's x-ray or CT scan results
  • Increase in the number of patients receiving radiology services at ARTN member hospitals and clinics
  • Increase in patient access to specialists, including radiologists and later, telepharmacists, telepsychiatrists, etc.
  • Improved patient outcomes when treatment requires radiology services
  • Reduction in the number of patients traveling outside of their rural communities in order to obtain appropriate treatment services
  • Reduction in staff training expense