Mercer University School of Medicine and about 16 other organizations created the Hancock County Healthcare Access Initiative for Hancock County, a rural area in east central Georgia, according to MercerNews.
Here are five key notes:
1. Navicent Health, Putnam General Hospital, Georgia Partnership for TeleHealth and Community Healthcare Systems are among the partnering organizations.
2. The Initiative serves as a pilot for using telehealth.
3. Hancock County does not have any full-time primary care physicians, so residents must travel more than 25 miles to receive care at emergency rooms.
4. Because Hancock offers limited healthcare services, residents often call 911 even when they're not in life-threatening situations, tying up emergency services.
4. Under the Initiative, EMTs utilize telehealth units to contact physicians at Putnam General and Navicent Health, who offer patient consultations.
5. The Initiative is deigned to provide primary healthcare in Hancock and create a telehealth-based business model.
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