Clemson to Help Improve Rural Health Through Broadband

CLEMSON — Clemson University has received a funding commitment from the Universal Service Administration Company Rural Health Care Program to bring high-speed broadband technology to 102 health care sites across South Carolina to improve the efficiency of rural health outreach efforts. The three-year funding commitment amounts to $5.24 million, with the possibility of renewal at the end of the term.

Clemson’s Joseph F. Sullivan Center began pursuing the funding in 2015 to improve telecommunication capability at health care sites frequented by its mobile clinic and those from other health care organizations. The funding will provide wireless broadband technology to stationary health sites and mobile clinics that will allow both entities easy, secure and reliable access to electronic health records and telemedicine for patients in rural, remote areas.

Paula Watt, director of the Clemson’s Sullivan Center, said it will streamline the way mobile clinics can operate in rural areas and provide an economic boost to South Carolina companies tasked with hardwiring sites and mobile clinics. However, the real beneficiaries will be the people in underserved communities who stand to gain the most from this infusion of technology.

“The Sullivan Center has spent decades bringing health care to communities that face an absence or limited amount of services,” Watt said. “Hardwiring these health care sites will increase the amount of people our mobile clinic and these sites can serve and improve every service we offer.”

Watt said the enhanced technology should make a night-and-day difference in the way Clemson’s mobile clinic can serve its patients. The clinic’s staff often waits up to five minutes per patient to connect to a health record that is protected through private networks. This process repeats each time service drops off, which is a regular occurrence.

The delay in service is part of the reason the clinic has gotten creative over the years. It moves patients through three or four different programs to provide comprehensive care and buy itself time lost by spotty connections. In the more remote locations, clinic staff resorts to paper documentation, which has to be transcribed later to add to the electronic health record.

An improved, stable connection takes away the need for paper documentation and the extra staff hours and risk of mistakes that come along with it. It also means the clinic can see more patients.

Clemson’s work on this project has required cooperation with other South Carolina health care systems and the patience to contend with the unknown. DeLorenzo said Watt and the Sullivan Center team have played a vital role in helping to write the “how-to manual” on acquiring the type of funding that will serve to expand access to health care for underserved rural populations throughout the state and across the nation.

Considering the future benefits, Watt is happy to be the model for something new.

“Clemson and many other mobile clinics will see the benefits of this funding at every stop we make across the state,” Watt said. “We’re going to bring an even better experience to more of the patients who need us most.”