Home care patients served by Rogue Valley Medical Center (RVMC) and Three Rivers Community Hospital (TRCH) will benefit from a Telemedicine and Distance Learning grant awarded on behalf of the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development.

Asante Health System is receiving nearly $500,000 to bring tele-monitoring services to as many as 525 RVMC and TRCH Home Care patients each year. The technology allows health care workers to remotely monitor the vital signs of their sickest patients in rural areas, as data is automatically sent to central stations at the RVMC Home Care office in Medford. Asante expects to have the technology installed and operating this spring. It’s an extraordinary technical achievement for a rural community, providing a means of daily contact to improve care and quality of life for hundreds of homebound patients.

This is Asante’s fourth telemedicine grant from RUS for a total of $2.3 million to enhance health care services in the most rural areas of our region. In 2000 and 2001, Asante received more than $830,000 to establish the Asante Regional Medical Network, a broadband network that connects RVMC and TRCH to more than 100 Josephine County physicians, four rural medical clinics, and Oregon Health and Sciences University in Portland.

In 2003, Asante won a $1 million grant and a $10 million loan to enhance rural health care by connecting an additional six rural community hospitals, eleven medical clinics, and more than 350 rural physicians to the central stations at RVMC and TRCH.

Asante Health System is a community owned and governed, not-for-profit organization that consists of Rogue Valley Medical Center in Medford, Three Rivers Community Hospital in Grants Pass, Genesis in Central Point and Hearthstone in Medford.