2004 - 2005 Grantee Directory - Pennsylvania

Clarion University of Pennsylvania
330 Main Street
Clarion, PA 16214
http://www.clarion.edu/hsec

Nancyann C. Falvo, Ph.D.
Ph: 814-227-1901
Fax: 814-227-2036
Email: nfalvo1@clarion.edu

Network Partners: Clarion University of PA, Slippery Rock University of PA, Edinboro University of PA, Warren- Forest County Higher Education Council and Warren General Hospital

Project Purpose: The purpose of this project is to address the health care needs of northwestern Pennsylvanians by ensuring increased access to high-quality primary care for both rural and under-served populations of this region. The goal of this project is to expand the delivery area of the current Clarion / Edinboro / Slippery Rock Universities’ MSN-FNP program to provide educational access for registered nurses of northwestern Pennsylvania.

Outcomes Expected: Develop a Community Health Care Improvement Advisory Committee including residents of rural communities serviced by the Warren-Forest Higher Ed. Council. Establish a scholarship incentive program for students enrolling in the MSN-FNP program. Extend the delivery area of the program to the northwest area of the state, using distance education modalities, beginning in August of 2002.

Service Area: Students enrolled in this program at the Warren-Forest site are from various northwestern Pennsylvania counties and from New York state. It is anticipated that all 6 students in the program will practice in the Warren-Forest area after graduation.

Services Provided: Educational – students enrolled in the MSN-FNP program been enrolled in 2 course (6 credits) per semester since August of 2002. A clinical instructor is present with the students during the clinical courses.

Equipment: Polycom and Pictur-tel Venue videoconferencing equipment primary sites, PCs for Blackboard instruction.

Transmission: ISDN 128 – 384K.

Geisinger Clinic
100 N Academy Avenue
Danville, PA 17822 - 1335
http://www.geisinger.org

Tracey W. Wolfe
Ph: 570-271-6114
Fax: 570-271-5269
Email: twwolfe@geisinger.edu

Network Partners: Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hospital (Wellsboro, Pa), Moses Taylor Hospital (Scranton, Pa), Sunbury Community Hospital (Sunbury, Pa), Dubois Regional Medical Center (Dubois, Pa), Geisinger Clinic (Danville, Pa and Wilkes-Barre, PA), Shamokin Community Hospital (Shamokin, PA), VA Medical Center (Wilkes-Barre, Pa), Susquehanna Health System (Williamsport, Pa), Evangelical Hospital (Lewisburg, Pa), Geisinger Health South (Danville, Pa), Robert Packer Hospital (Sayre, Pa), Center City Medical Complex (Hazleton, Pa), Family Practice Center (Mifflinburg, Pa), Geisinger Community Practice (Danville, Pa), and Guthrie Clinic (Sayre, Pa).

Project Purpose: Create a regional partnership where, by targeted distance education of consumers and providers and by use of other telehealth methods, information is shared and used by all stakeholders to motivate and monitor change in stroke outcomes in rural Pennsylvania. This is needed to ultimately decrease response time from the onset of stroke, address gaps in training to manage stroke victims, and develop regional based triage protocols to optimize appropriate use of local hospitals, regional centers of care and clinical expertise.

Outcomes Expected: Assess needs to educate consumers and providers, to initiate work relevant to developing a rational rural network of care, and to initiate work for long-term evaluation of these efforts. This will be done through knowledge surveys, educational program development to address gaps, a partnership with each hospital using the distance education platform, which will assist in developing a model plan, and the creation of a blueprint for a stroke registry.

Service Area: Care is provided to patients who reside in predominantly rural areas of Pennsylvania. Twenty-four of Geisinger’s 31 county areas are officially designated as Medically Underserved Areas; the Office of Rural Health officially designates 15 of these rural.

Services Provided: Twenty-four hour service line to Geisinger neurologist on call (Implemented Spring 2003), Train the Trainer courses (Mini Fellowship – Fall 2003 and Spring 2004), and Screenings (through calendar year 2003).

Equipment: Five computer workstations, Software (MapInfo, MS Project, Reference Manager), one network printer, and 2 PDAs.

Transmission: Phone, fax, computers (including internet).

Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC
300 Halket Street
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213
Organization: http://www.magee.edu/
Project: http://www.fightingspirit.org

Deborah W. Linhart
Ph: 412-641-4024
Fax: 412-641-1221
Email: dlinhart@mail.magee.edu

Network Partners: UPMC Bedford; UPMC Northwest; UPMC Horizon
UPMC Lee Regional; UPMC McKeesport; UPMC St. Margaret’s; UPMC Shadyside; UPMC Presbyterian; UPMC Southside; Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh; University of Pittsburgh Center for Continuing Education in the Health Sciences.

Project Purpose: To develop and implement a multifaceted telehealth initiative that enhances access to women beyond Magee’s geographical service area. To utilize a variety of telehealth strategies that will use electronic information and telecommunications to disseminate public health information, enhance clinical services and support professional education. There are 5 components of this initiative: Gender-Based Medicine Education Series; Women’s Cancer Tumor Board Conference; Breast CA web site; Neonatal Radiology; OB Virtual Tour.

Outcomes Expected: Gender-Based Medicine - CMEs obtained; participant satisfaction; Women’s Cancer Tumor Board – Number of participants, number of cases submitted by community-based providers, number of women enrolled in clinical trials from the community sites. Breast CA Website–Number of web hits, user satisfaction, Neonatal teleradiology - Number of consults, tracking turn around time. Virtual Tour - Number of web hits, user satisfaction.

Service Area: Western Pennsylvania, Tri-State Region, and the World Wide Web.

Services Provided: Core Services provided within the scope of the project include distance learning to health care professionals in urban and rural settings; health care information to the community via the web, video and written materials; neonatal teleradiology between two hospital sites; and a multi- disciplinary cancer conference between geographically separate sites.

Equipment: VTEL Video-conferencing equipment; Compaq Deskpros, Compaq Server platform; Stentor’s ISyntax TM, NT, UNIX, and Macintosh server resources, OC-12 ATM network, Microsoft SQL Server 7.0, digital camera, computed radiography.

Transmission: ISDN, Web, OC-12, T1.

Network Partners: Pennsylvania Optometric Association, Susquehanna Health System, Philadelphia Department of Public Health.

Project Purpose: This project provides an outreach eye care program to under-served patients in a Northwestern area of Philadelphia. The outreach clinic is staffed by primary eye care providers and is located adjacent to the local public health clinic in an area with no indigenous eye care. In addition, the college has linked this clinic via telemedicine with the main academic campus clinic, which is staffed by the appropriate specialty eye care providers needed to address the acute and chronic eye disease management needs of the population served. In addition, the college is linked to a group of rural providers in the under-served Northern areas of Pennsylvania.

Outcomes Expected: For patients cared for in the system, the college is are measuring the increase in access and outcomes based upon the actual improvement in the patient consultation options and outcomes of actual consultations, especially those requiring the more difficult-to-obtain specialty eye care consultations. The college uses a Likert scale to measure the patient's perception of improvement in care, access to care, and convenience of obtaining care with this outreach as compared to their prior experience.

Service Area: Northwestern Philadelphia (Strawberry Mansion Section).
Northern Pennsylvania MUAs (Bradford, Tioga and Sullivan Counties).

Services Provided: Routine eye care at remote sites. Specialty consultation for acute and chronic eye conditions via telemedicine to remote and network sites. Distance clinical education to providers.

Equipment: (4) Canon CR6-45Nm digital fundus cameras, (4) Slit lamp cameras, and networked Store and Forward telemedicine software at the campus and remote sites.

Transmission: Full T1 lines on campus with broad-band connections to remote sites.

Pennsylvania Homecare Association
20 Erford Road, Suite 115
Lemoyne, PA 17043
http://www.pahomecare.org

Tammy Sanner
Ph: 717-975-9448, Ext. 22
Fax: 717-975-9456
Email: tsanner@pahomecare.org

Network Partners: Pennsylvania State University and 36 homecare agencies located throughout Pennsylvania (25 of which are providing telehomecare services).

Project Purpose: To determine if the use of telehomecare enhances the recruitment, retention and productivity of homecare nurses. The study will conduct an analysis of 36 home health agencies that are broken down into four distinct research groups: A) Agencies that implemented telehomecare prior to 2003; B) Agencies that implemented telehomecare in 2003; C) Agencies that are in the process of implementing telehomecare; and D) Agencies who have that implemented telehomecare.

Outcomes Expected: A survey of home health nurses and data collection surveys of the 36 participating agencies will be used to determine project outcomes. Outcomes for agencies with telehomecare are anticipated to be: 1) increased RN job satisfaction; 2) decreased RN intent to leave; 3) improved nurse to patient ratio for top diagnoses; 4) increased total contact time with patients for top diagnoses.

Service Area: Of the 36 participating agencies, 25 are providing telehomecare services in 50 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties.

Services Provided: Remote patient monitoring and video-home visits.

Equipment: Agencies are using home telemonitors that transmit vital signs over POTS and/or video telephone devices that also transmit over POTS. Equipment varies by agency. There are a total of 660 units state-wide in this study.

Transmission: Information transmits from the homes over POTS to a central station at the home health agency.

Network Partners: Lehigh Valley Health System, Allentown, PA
Mount Nittany Medical Center, State College PA

Project Purpose: To evaluate and purchase telecommunication and videoconferencing equipment to enhance current equipment and facilitate communication. To develop a “virtual” Clinical Trials office. Creative methods for communicating, evaluating patients and providing clinical trials is needed.
The availability of funding to purchase equipment to enhance the communication that was compatible across the Institute will enhance the project’s timetable to implement distance education. This communication will enable the members to be more effective in use of time, information and opportunities to share resources.

Outcomes Expected: Frequency of usage of equipment. Quantify purpose for use of network. To be developed by Health Evaluation Science Department.

Service Area: 40 counties in Central and South Central PA.

Services Provided: Teleconferencing capability, Video conferencing. The system has been operational since 2000. Future purchases will enhance capabilities to include pathology and imaging ability.

Equipment: PicTel videoconferencing, Polyphone telephone conferencing.

Transmission: Internet, VTC Bridge, ISDN.

Susquehanna Health System
777 Rural Avenue
Williamsport, PA 17701
http://www.shscares.org

Pamela R. Wirth
Ph: 570-321-2100
Fax 570-321-3719
Email: pamela.wirth@shscares.org

Network Partners: The Laurel Health System – Wellsboro, PA, The Jersey Shore Hospital, Jersey Shore, PA The Bucktail Medical Center, Renovo, PA

Project Purpose: To implement an electronic patient record that spans the continuum of care and the life of the patient that can be accessed and utilized by all care providers participating in this project from any location to enable more efficient quality patient care.

Outcomes Expected: Over the life of this project, many outcomes have been determined and met and more yet to come. Some of the outcomes have been the use and access of this record by physicians and caregivers, testing and validity of user interfaces, testing of security methods (such as digital
certificates, tokens and biometrics) and acceptable use, elimination of paper charts both in physicians’ offices and acute care settings, testing and validation of web portals and on-line resource usage, mass education of physicians on health care informatics, elimination of printed radiology films, complete transformation to digital radiography films, and remote access of
records.

Service Area: North Central Pennsylvania to the New York State border including Lycoming, Clinton, and Tioga counties of Pennsylvania.

Services Provided: Electronic Health Record development including wide area network development, laboratory, radiology, respiratory therapy, and pathology. History and physicals, discharge summaries, operative reports, consults, Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) images,
scanned documents like Emergency room records, pharmacy drug histories, Physician Office Ambulatory record for over 100 providers. This information is accessible to clinicians from any place at any time via a web portal which also contains our electronic medical library.

Equipment: Wide Area Network (WAN) equipment, Compaq servers, Cisco routers, and many varieties of laptops and desktops.

Transmission: Redundant ATM ringed network interconnecting other facilities and organizations via various methods such as regional cable service company provided fiber, Telco T1’s, Telcom frame relays, Internet VPN’s and cable modem services. Band Width ranges from 56KB to 100 MB.

Information Services Division
200 Lothrop Street, Forbes Tower Suite 10072
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
http://www.upmc.com

Cathy Poole
Ph: 412-647-9235
Fax: 412-647-6003
Email: pooleca@upmc.edu

Network Partners: N/A

Project Purpose: Implementation and rollout of the Electronic Health Record (HER) - Outpatient to provide the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) related physician practices with access to a patient’s EHR and to link the individual physician practices with other UPMC Health System entities. Enable clinicians to automate clinical functions such as order entry, results reporting, physician inbox messaging and action items, reference library access and clinical documentation. Provide web-based remote access to patient clinical data that resides in the EHR, secure messaging capabilities and automation of the referral process to affiliate physicians.

Outcomes Expected: Improve provider access to relevant patient-related clinical information. Improved clinical decision making. Methods to be used include pre- and post-implementation time-motion studies, workflow
analysis, tracking of volume, compliance, and patient safety indicators, and patient and provider surveys.

Service Area: UPMC Health System facilities in Western Pennsylvania.

Services Provided: Not applicable

Equipment: Not applicable

Transmission: Not applicable

University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing
Nurse Anesthesia Program
3500 Victoria St.
336 Victoria Building
Pittsburgh, PA 15261-0001
http://www.pitt.edu/~napcrna

John O’Donnell, CRNA, MSN
Ph: 412-624-4860
Fax: 412-383-7227
Email: jod01@pitt.edu

Network Partners:

1. Elk Regional Medical Center, St Mary’s, Pennsylvania
2. Covenant Healthcare, Saginaw, Michigan
3. University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Lee Hospital, Johnstown, PA
4. Altoona Hospital, Altoona, PA (Plan to partner in Jan. 04 semester).

Project Purpose: Enables Nurse Anesthesia Students to participate in classes provided at the parent University while affiliating at rural and distant hospitals, especially those with a high percentage of elderly patients. These sites are in areas with a shortage of Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists
(CRNA). Increase the number of students accepted into the Nurse Anesthesia Program by providing additional clinical education opportunities.

Outcomes Expected: Student and Instructor Evaluations of each distant class will determine the effectiveness of classes at distant affiliations. Distant student’s test grades are statistically correlated with student grades at home site. Increase in student’s specialty case numbers upon graduation compared with those of graduates before implementation of distant affiliations. Increase in number of graduates employed in HPSAs.

Service Areas: Underserved areas in Western and Central Pennsylvania and Northern Michigan.

Major Services: Distance learning of key components of the anesthesia curriculum to students recruited from and
affiliating in rural/distant clinical sites.

Services Provided: Transmission of classes to Master’s level Nurse Anesthesia students and CRNA instructors began in October 03. Recruitment of students from rural areas for admission began in January 03. This
program endeavors to increase the total number of rural providers. Additional sites are planned for implementation January 04.

Equipment: 1 Polycon View Station MP, 4 Tandberg 1000 Standard Mode 1128 kbps, 4 Dell Inspiron 5100 desktop computers, 4 ISDN wall outlets to 2 NT 3 Network Termination Devices.

Transmission: ISDN Network connections. Web transmission of case numbers using Typhon program.