FCC Chairman cites Barton Health's program as a catalyst for nationwide broadband expansion

Barton Health's Telemedicine program, which was launched as part of a Rural Healthcare Pilot Program, received accolades this month from the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission who noted the South Lake Tahoe program aided in recent decisions made by the Commission to expand a broadband Telemedicine program nationally.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski visited Barton Memorial Hospital in South Lake Tahoe on July 30 and listened to a presentation by staff regarding the hospital's Telemedicine program. In the letter below, Genachowski said new money will be made available nationwide and cited Barton's Telemedicine program as being a catalyst for specialist care among communities that are under-served or rural areas that don't have specialists.

Barton Health has made significant progress in telemedicine, while providing patients access to specialties such as cardiology, endocrinology, infectious disease, dermatology, adult psychiatry and neurology at Barton Memorial Hospital, Barton Community Clinic, Barton Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Urgent Care and Family Practice. By providing these specialties to patients via telehealth, the healthcare system has provided an average of 75 patients a month, cost and time-effective alternatives to seeing physicians outside of the Basin.

"Broadband can revolutionize health care in our country, with powerful potential to improve quality of care for patients, while saving billions of dollars," he wrote.

Because of the visit to Barton Health, among other facilities in the nation, Genachowski said the new Healthcare Connect program will expand the FCC's healthcare broadband initiative from pilot to program.