Avera Health has received $1 million in federal funding to extend virtual nursing care in South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska and Iowa.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Distance Learning and Telemedicine Program grant covers a three-year period for the program called Avera RURAL-UP: Solving Rural Workforce Challenges in the Upper Midwest with Virtual Patient Care.
Avera started grant-funded virtual nursing two years ago in Sioux Falls and Pierre, South Dakota. The grant will allow the system to expand the care across the Avera footprint.
Avera RURAL-UP uses virtual nursing models that enable clinical staff to manage tasks such as patient education, admissions, discharge protocols and safety surveillance remotely. This allows bedside nurses to focus on direct patient care and helps ease staff shortages.
"The USDA has been an amazing collaborator with Avera to provide the needed equipment for innovation at rural hospitals, which otherwise may not have the financial margin to delve into these areas," Rachael Sherard, senior vice president for rural health at Avera, said in a release. "We are grateful to have received 23 USDA grants to fund innovative care over the past 15 years."
The funding will cover the purchase of real-time, interactive telemedicine equipment, including mobile carts powered by artificial intelligence, surveillance cameras, and remote audiovisual communication tools for many Avera locations, which are primarily in rural communities.