The U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development announced this week that it is awarding Southeastern Louisiana University a grant to help support medical professionals.
The organization awarded $651,207 to the university through the Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grant Program to fund Southeastern’s telehealth project.
USDA Rural Development Louisiana State Director Deirdre Deculus Robert said the funds will enable Southeastern to provide telehealth carts, peripherals, and portable telehealth kits to equip three hub sites and several end-users throughout Tangipahoa, St. Tammany, St. Helena, Washington, and Livingston parishes.
According to the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (2017), Louisiana rates near the top in the nation with highest death rates from chronic diseases: first in septicemia, second in kidney disease, third in stroke, and fifth in heart disease and cancer. In its 2021 Community Needs Assessment, need was noted for access to continuity of care, mental and behavioral health, and education and health literacy.
Southeastern’s project will benefit 167,016 individuals through hub sites including Hood Memorial Hospital in Amite City and St. Tammany Parish Hospital in Covington. It will have a predominant focus on telehealth with a secondary use of distance learning for health careers, particularly those with a mental health focus. Each site will connect to specialty providers of their choice to bring specialty care with an emphasis on mental health, hospitalists, emergency care, and chronic disease.
Southeastern will use the project to provide healthcare career distance learning education to the classroom sites. They will also use it to provide tele-supervision and precepting to nursing students during clinical rotations at the sites, with a focus on psychiatric nurse practitioners.
