Rural hospitals are entering a pivotal moment.
With the launch of the Rural Health Transformation Program, hospitals across the country have a new opportunity to strengthen local access to care, improve financial sustainability, and support the clinicians who serve their communities every day.
While the policy framework and funding are new, the goals are familiar: keep more rural residents close to home for needed medical care, reduce unnecessary transfers to urban facilities, and build long-term capacity in rural healthcare systems.
For many rural hospitals, the question is no longer whether transformation is needed, but how to operationalize it in a way that is realistic, scalable, and sustainable.
For more than 20 years, Access TeleCare has worked alongside rural hospitals to answer that question. Access TeleCare’s earliest hospital partnerships were with rural hospitals, and today, we have deployed over 2,600 telemedicine programs across the country. We are recognized for sustainable, hospital-first telemedicine solutions.
Telemedicine as a Practical Path to Transformation
Telemedicine is a proven way to advance the goals of the Rural Health Transformation Program. When designed specifically for rural hospitals, specialty telemedicine programs help grow local access to care, stabilize hospital operations and finances, and support local clinical teams, without requiring hospitals to take on exorbitant physician recruiting or locums costs.
Across the country, rural hospitals are already using specialty telemedicine to translate transformation goals into measurable outcomes.
Caring for More High-Acuity Patients Locally
At Palo Pinto General Hospital in Mineral Wells, Texas, leadership turned to telePulmonology and Critical Care to close coverage gaps and better support critically ill patients. Within months of implementation, the hospital saw a 50% increase in case mix index, a 30% increase in ICU volume, and a meaningful reduction in patient transfers.
Expanding Specialty Access to Strengthen Hospital Reputation
In Piggott, Arkansas, Piggott Health System turned to Access TeleCare for teleCritical care when pandemic admissions and overload made transfers impossible. After seeing the success, it deployed teleCardiology, teleInfectious disease, and outpatient teleNeurology, cementing its reputation in the community as a world-class, reliable specialty care hospital.
Coordinated Inpatient Care for Complex Cases
In East Texas, a rural hospital began its telemedicine journey with a single inpatient service line and quickly saw the impact of having specialty support available on demand. As patient needs evolved, the hospital expanded its program — adding additional telemedicine service lines over time and ultimately building a virtual-first care model supported by eight specialty telemedicine programs.
In one clinically complex case, the hospital used multiple inpatient telemedicine services, including critical care, pulmonary, and nephrology, to treat the patient locally, including providing dialysis that would typically require transfer to an urban facility.
“The power of collaborative telemedicine brought care to the patient much more quickly than if he had to be transferred,” said Lauren Ingram, MSN, APRN, chief of advanced practice providers at Access TeleCare. “Our nurses and APPs are performing at the top of their license, and patients reap the benefits because the local hospital is capable of meeting their complex needs.”
Designed to Scale — At Any Facility
What unites these hospitals is not size, geography, or service mix, it’s approach. Each started with the service lines they needed most, integrated telemedicine into existing workflows, and scaled over time as needs evolved.
“The Rural Health Transformation Program creates an opportunity to align policy goals with existing, proven, practical solutions,” said Joshua DeTillio, CEO of Access TeleCare. “We’ve seen over and over that specialty telemedicine supports rural hospitals in strengthening local access to care, supporting and empowering on-site clinicians, and sustaining successful care delivery.”
A Moment for Action
The Rural Health Transformation Program represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to stabilize and strengthen rural healthcare across the country. Telemedicine offers a ready-made, proven way to achieve its goals, one that is already working in rural hospitals today.
For hospital leaders evaluating next steps, the path forward does not require reinventing care delivery. By partnering with a veteran telemedicine provider that understands rural healthcare and knows how to build programs that last, the path forward is clear.
