Telehealth: Make Sure You’re Connected, the Writing’s on the Wall

Em Carpenter

Em was one of those argumentative children who was sarcastically encouraged to become a lawyer, so she did. She is a proud life-long West Virginian, and, paradoxically, a liberal. In addition to writing about society, politics and culture, she enjoys cooking, podcasts, reading, and pretending to be a runner. She will correct your grammar. You can find her on Twitter.

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4 Responses

  1. Michael Cain says:

    Somewhat relatedly, the State of Washington is going to take over the recently bankrupt Astria Regional Medical Center. The facility will be staffed by the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (one of the eight US uniformed services). The state signed a six-month lease; the PHSCC has booked an entire hotel in Yakima through the end of April for the staff.

    Covid is likely to bankrupt a lot of rural hospitals. Yakima, where the facility is located, isn’t typically rural (and this particular bankruptcy isn’t Covid-related; the parent company declared Chapter 11 in May 2019). The county has almost a quarter-million people and has experienced substantial population growth from 1970 on.Report

    • Em Carpenter in reply to Michael Cain says:

      Yes. Two hospitals in West Virginia have closed in the last two months, one just announced last week. They are looking for ways to make use of the facilities for the upcoming surge in COVID cases.Report

      • Rural hospital collapse syndrome — for lack of anything else to call it — is a thing pretty much everywhere.

        I see Gov. Cuomo is talking about sending the National Guard out to find currently unused ventilators and bring them to areas with the worst shortages. I assume this will result in stripping equipment from the rural hospitals for use in urban areas, as the zombie spread simulations have the epidemics reaching the rural areas later. I don’t really expect to see small Great Plains towns barricading the single paved road that carries outside traffic. OTOH, I wouldn’t be completely surprised if a few of them tried it.Report

  2. atomickristin says:

    Great piece! While I do very much hope to see more accessibility to those people with computers (this would help me immensely – it wears very thin to have to travel 4+ hours and sit in the waiting room for 30-60 minutes, for a doctor to discuss something with you for a few minutes) and I believe it will help rural areas in the long term, I do agree this assumption that people have connectivity everywhere is a risky one.Report