Allegheny Health Network (AHN) Grove City Hospital (GCH) has received a grant totaling nearly $500,000 from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), combined with matching funds from Allegheny Health Network (AHN). 

The award will help GCH advance two telemedicine programs designed to improve patient care and health outcomes for rural populations across Mercer, Lawrence, Venango and Butler counties. 

The grant comes through the USDA's Rural Utilities Service Program, which helps pays for much needed infrastructure and telemedicine improvements in rural communities. 

Rural hospitals across the country continue to face numbers of challenges, such as maintaining sufficient staff to provide inpatient care, as well as providing timely access to stroke treatment. 

GCH will be able to address critical care needs by augmenting its tele-neurology program and implementing a digital nursing program using the grant.

"This funding will address these issues directly," said Christopher Clark, DO, MHA, president of AHN Grove City Hospital.

He continues, "by integrating digital nursing and expanding the teleneurology program, AHN Grove City is proactively taking steps to enhance patient care and improve health outcomes for the rural communities we serve."

AHN launched its first digital nursing program in 2023, and the program has since demonstrated positive impacts on patient care while utilizing remote communication technologies, digital nurses partnering bedside nurses to interact with patients, ask and answers questions, provide education and complete admissions and discharges more efficiently. 

Digital nurses are not intended to replace bedside nursing staff, but rather complement and enhance their work by providing an extra set of "digital hands." 

"The Digital Nursing program will equip patient rooms with cutting-edge audio-visual technology, including mounted televisions and cameras that facilitate real-time interactions between patients and digital nurses," said Alicia LaPalombara, Director of Clinical Informatics and Digital Health.

She also adds, "patients will benefit from the presence of digital nurses who can manage administrative components of tasks like admissions, discharges, and patient rounds, freeing up bedside nurses to focus on direct, hands-on care."

Their telestroke program is a 24/7 service that provides access to AHN vascular neurologists who are based outside of the hospital and will remotely assess and treat hospital patients with acute stroke symptoms. 

"This initiative will help grow and sustain the program, enabling our clinicians to provide timely and effective stroke care to patients in urgent need, reducing the risk of complications and improving patient outcomes," said Stephen Samples, MD, AHN Chair of Neurology. "Through this kind of program, we're addressing some of the most pressing health care needs in these rural communities."