WALTON COUNTY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) – More life-saving medical services are on the way to rural communities across the Panhandle.
Ascension Sacred Heart Health System will receive a more than $2.8 million grant through Florida’s Rural Health Transformation Program.
They are working to save lives in rural areas with a mobile stroke unit. The unit is expected to be operational in about a year.
“Northwest Florida has a very high prevalence of stroke,” said Will Condon, the president and CEO of Ascension Sacred Heart Health System. “ The faster we can get to these patients and start treatment, the better outcomes they will have.”
The mobile stroke unit will feature a CT scanner, clot-busting medications, and a telehealth connection to a hospital care team.
“We might save two to three hours of time loss with this new mobile stroke unit,” said Condon. “Because of the technology on the bus, and the connectivity back to our stroke specialists at the hospital.”
The mobile unit is being funded by the multi-million dollar grant from Florida’s Rural Health Transformation Program.
“People in rural counties transparently are vulnerable to healthcare because of access issues,” said Codon, “so it is a win-win for Sacred Heart. We get to expand our care closer to the communities we serve, quicker access to care.”
While the majority of the $2.8 million grant will be used for the mobile stroke unit, the rest will help fund mobile diagnostic technology in rural areas.
“Right now, a lot of these patients don’t get those kind of screening services because they don’t have access to this kind of healthcare,” said Dr. Joshua Hodge, the family medicine residency program director. “So it’s going to be cutting-edge healthcare delivered right where folks live.”
That technology will be used in the family medicine residency program.
“Diagnostic equipment that’s portable, that we can put in vehicles and take out, and use where folks live in northern rural Walton County,” said Dr.Hodge, “for instance, ultrasound machines that we can take and we can use to make diagnoses on the spot.”
Ascension Sacred Heart leaders add that the goal of the family residency program is to keep those doctors local once they finish their residency. They say every doctor that stays in the area is a win for rural healthcare.
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