Rural Health Network Development Planning Grant Program - Applicant Organization Information Saint Joseph Hospital 360 Broadway, Bangor Maine 04401 Acute Care Hospital https://stjosephbangor.org/ Designated Project Director Information: Jonnathan Busko, MD, MPH, FACEP Medical Director, Care Delivery Transformation & Associate Medical Director, Emergency Department (Office) 207 – 907-3450 JONNATHAN.BUSKO@sjhhealth.com Project Track: Regular Network Planning Grant Track Network Name: Surgical Telehealth Planning and Facilitation Network Legislative Aims: Our planning is in line with aspects of all three legislative aims as detailed in the Narrative. Regarding Aim #1, we will achieve efficiencies in developing a system of surgical care to better meet the rural patient concerns, and to better address their health needs. For Aim #2, we will formalize the Network and create a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) to better coordinate and improve health care services. More specifically, the MOA will be related use of locally facilitated telehealth pre- and post-surgery to ease the burden of accessing care for rural patients. And for Aim #3, we will strengthen the rural health care system as a whole by encouraging cross-organizational collaboration and shared leadership and identify ways to continue to obtain community support for the Network, and the use of telehealth for specialized medical services. Focus Area and Project Track: Regular Network Planning Track: St. Joseph Hospital (SJH) focus area is the development of a plan to offer telehealth pre- and post-surgical visits to rural and remote patients, and to develop a curriculum to prepare telehealth facilitators. Proposed Service Region: The regions to be served include the Islands of Matinicus, North Haven, and Vinalhaven of Knox County (Rural County); and the most northern town of Somerset County, Jackman Maine (Rural County); and Harrington and St. Croix of Washington County (Rural County). Population to be Served: The rural and remote residents of northern (Jackman) and Downeast (Harrington and St. Croix) are among the most underserved in our state. These residents are from Somerset and Washington County, where poor health outcomes and health factors dominate the statistics. The island residents of Knox County have unique challenges to accessing the healthcare they need given their unbridged land. Network Members: The healthcare settings of the Islands Community Medical Services, Jackman Community Health Center, Harrington Family Health Center, and St. Croix Regional Health Center are designated as rural, and constitute 66.7% rural makeup of the Network. St Joseph Hospital (applicant) and Eastern Maine Community College are two sites not designated as rural. Letters of Commitment are included (Attachment 7) and existing partnerships exist through shared membership in the state’s larger Accountable Care Organization, though the Planning Network is new. Rural Service and Benefit: All four rural health centers serve almost exclusively rural residents, and over a third of SJH patients are from rural towns and counties surrounding Bangor. Residents in the rural counties will benefit by not having to travel as often to the Hospital for pre- and post-surgical care. In brief, our proposal has one Goal and three synergistic Objectives. GOAL: Facilitated telehealth hub and spoke model available and readily adopted in rural healthcare settings OBJECTIVES: (1) Establish a Surgical Telehealth Planning and Facilitation Network by June 2024 (2) Create a reproducible model of “facilitated” surgical telehealth services at rural health centers by June 2024 (3) Develop a process for training and credentialing originating rural site telehealth facilitators by June 2024 Funding Preference: We are requesting a funding preference as we meet the Medically Underserved Population (Qualification #2; Attachment 8) by Governor’s Exception, 1995 (Please see Attachment 8); our four rural clinics also qualify for HPSA (Qualification #1) and MUA
