In order to bridge the gap of health care access that is much needed in Oklahoma, OSU Medicine is utilizing the latest technologies to bring the expertise of its physicians directly to rural hospitals across the state.
OSU Medicine is currently providing virtual behavioral health emergency room consults, as well as hospitalist services for McCurtain Memorial Hospital and Cleveland Area Hospital respectively. Emergency room behavioral care will also soon be available at Coal County General Hospital and Atoka County Medical Center, while virtual hospitalist services will soon be available in Sallisaw at Northeastern Health System Sequoyah. Tele-stroke services are now offered at hospitals in Anadarko, Fairfax and Stroud, while virtual cardiology services are ongoing with Choctaw Nation in Poteau “Oklahoma State University has been pioneering telehealth services for more than 25 years,” said Dr. Johnny Stephens, president of OSU Center for Health Sciences. “OSU continues to innovate as the leader in telehealth and virtual care, as technology continues to broaden the possibilities of reaching across the state to provide specialty care. Through these efforts, we are working to address both patient needs as well as health care workforce shortage issues.”
In addition to virtual care services, OSU Medicine is providing board-certified emergency medicine physicians to staff and manage the ER services at Cleveland Area Hospital and McAlester Regional Medical Center.
