(Caribou)… United States Senator Susan Collins has announced a major Federal Grant to Cary Medical Center in Caribou. The $848,478 Network Development Grant was awarded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). The funding will support the development of the ‘Rural Health Innovation Network’. (RHIN) is a collaboration of ten hospitals that serve five counties in northeastern Maine. The RHIN has been collaborating formally and informally since the 1990s to achieve efficiencies, expand access to and improve the quality of health services, and strengthen population health in some of the most rural and impoverished counties in Maine. In making the announcement, Collins pointed to the significance of the project.
“I am very pleased with the awarding of this significant grant to Cary Medical Center”, said Collins who, along with Maine Senator Angus King, signed a letter of support for the original grant application. “The grant will provide the opportunity for the RHIN to explore the utilization of advancing technologies in the delivery of healthcare services to geographically isolated, low income and elderly patients. The grant will focus on chronic disease including Heart Failure and Diabetes. In addition, using advanced, secure communication networks, the participating hospitals will have the ability to develop and share best practices, share physician specialists, and work together to address the challenges of rural health care while maintaining their independent status.”
The three year grant award will engage ten hospitals including, Cary Medical Center, Northern Maine Medical Center, Houlton Regional Hospital, Millinocket Regional Hospital, St. Joseph Hospital in Bangor, Penobscot Valley Hospital in Lincoln, Mount Desert Island Hospital in Bar Harbor, Mayo Regional Hospital in Dover-Foxcroft, Calais Regional Hospital, and Down East Community Hospital in Machias. Kris Doody, RN, MSB, FACHE, and CEO at Cary Medical Center said that all the hospitals involved with the project face many of the same challenges.
“All of us as hospitals delivering services in rural Maine are dealing with shrinking reimbursement, challenges in physician recruitment, high technology and labor costs and a rapidly aging population”, said Doody. “By working together we can share ideas, programs and services to the benefit of our patients and the communities we serve while preserving our own unique organizational culture and local control. This is a novel, innovative concept and we believe the possibilities are only limited by our imagination.”
A major priority of the RHIN will be to integrate clinical care for the chronically ill populations by coordinating and sharing services among the participating hospitals. Four of the five counties served by the collaborative have the highest rates of hospitalizations for congestive heart failure and the highest percentage of adults with diabetes. The grant will also pilot the use of remote patient monitoring and Virtual Office visits to improve access to services.
Peter Sirois, Chief Executive Officer at Northern Maine Medical Center, said that the strength of the RHIN lies within the confidence and trust that has been built over time through many years of working together.
“Our rural hospitals have always been innovative”, said Sirois. “We have had to be in order to charter a successful course through the ever-changing healthcare industry. Over the years many of us have worked together to solve problems and improve both quality and efficiency. This grant will take us to an entirely new level building upon the foundation we have established.”
In addition to providing funding for project staff, the HRSA grant will also provide more than $100,000 for state of the art telehealth equipment including real time HD interactive video and other secure network communication technology.