Kuster, Shea-Porter Announce Nearly $1 Million in Federal Grants to Support Rural Health Services

Press Release

LEBANON, N.H. -- Today, Congresswomen Annie Kuster (NH-02) and Carol Shea-Porter (NH-01) announced that Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center will receive a pair of federal grants totaling nearly $1 million to help spread telemedical health services to rural communities across New Hampshire and Vermont. The grants, awarded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Distance Learning and Telemedicine program, will help administrators in Dartmouth-Hitchcock's Center for Telehealth to provide clinical services from a distance to dozens of rural communities around the region.

The grant funding will provide telecommunications equipment and software to hospitals and medical centers throughout Cheshire, Coos, Grafton, Hillsborough, Merrimack, and Sullivan counties, as well as sites in rural Vermont.

"These grants will help increase access to health care services and improve community outcomes by connecting rural medical providers with the resources of the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center," Kuster said. "This critical funding will help decrease costs for patients who will no longer have to travel great distances for specialist appointments, and will also help reduce overall health care costs by providing patients with timely medical care before dangerous and costly complications in their conditions can arise."

"Telemedicine is critical to meeting the health care needs of rural communities throughout America," Shea-Porter said. "I am pleased to see the USDA making such a significant investment to implement this technology in the Granite State."

Launched in 2012, Dartmouth-Hitchcock's Center for Telehealth uses video, web, and mobile technologies to connect health care providers to thousands of patients in the most remote parts of northern New England. The two USDA grants, which total $998,356, will serve more than 40 rural sites, including Colebrook, Greenfield, Groveton, Lancaster, Littleton, New London, Whitefield and Woodsville.

"Our efforts in telehealth to date, in our remote clinics and our telestroke program, are showing positive results for our patients," said Dr. Sarah N. Pletcher, director of the Center for Telehealth. "We're honored that USDA has awarded Dartmouth-Hitchcock these grants, to help us expand our reach for the benefit of patients- and providers- in the furthest reaches of northern New England."

The USDA Distance Learning and Telemedicine Loan and Grant program provides funding for advanced telecommunications technologies to meet the education and health care needs of rural communities around the country.

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