About the Hospital
Greeley County Health Services, located near the Colorado-Kansas border, is a 25-bed Critical Access Hospital serving one of the most remote regions of Kansas. The hospital faced major challenges in offering specialty care, with patients having to travel three to five hours for appointments in endocrinology or rheumatology. The financial and logistical difficulties of recruiting full-time specialists to such a remote location left a gap in patient care.
The Challenge
Greeley County faced two main challenges: the lack of patient volume to justify hiring full-time specialists and the geographic isolation that made traveling to larger facilities for care burdensome for patients.
The Solution
The implementation of telemedicine services has significantly reduced wait times for patients, allowing them to get appointments in as little as two weeks rather than waiting two months. Additionally, telemedicine has strengthened relationships between the hospital’s sta_ and the local community as Greeley County delivered more than 100 specialty consults for Endocrinology and Rheumatology over the past year that they would not have otherwise been able to support.
Benefits & Outcomes
- Balanced Access to Specialties Based on Need
- Reduced Patient Travel Time
- Improved Care Coordination
