New Nationwide Grants Provide for Telepharmacy Service in Rural Hospitals

First up, the FCC gave out $145 million in grant money to rural health consortiums in support of upgrading their networks for things like telehealth and just general day-to-day operations. All in all, the grants affect more than 2000 rural hospitals around the US. The press release, Rural Telemedicine Program Funds 16 More Broadband Telehealth Networks, states at least one health network will use the cash explicitly for a telepharmacy system between 12 hospitals:

Pennsylvania Mountains Healthcare Alliance ($4.49 M) – A new broadband network of approximately 12 hospitals in rural western Pennsylvania will provide a variety of telehealth services, specialty care, and telepharmacy in 18 counties. The network will provide a minimum of 10 Mbps service and connect with Internet2. The project previously merged with the Juniata Valley Network project, a network in the rural region of the Appalachian Mountains that will connect approximately 79 health care facilities to enable telemedicine and school wellness programs, and will connect to Internet2 at speeds ranging from 7 to 100 Mbps.

Additionally, this "Flex Update" from the University of North Dakota's Center for Rural Health has a section called Impacts of the 2009-2010 SHIP Grant Awards where they detail how Small Rural Hospital Improvement Program grants from the federal Office of Rural Health Policy were spent at Critical Access Hospitals around the state. North Dakota CAHs received a total of $271,250, of which, 69% were purchases for computers, software, servers and the like. Last years grants allowed CAHs to implement Electronic Medical Records. Some of this money will undoubtedly go to telepharmacy projects.