Wyoming Telehealth May Newsletter

The Wyoming Telehealth Network newsletter is your source for information, resources and best practices in telehealth. We support healthcare entities, providers, and specialists through professional development, collaboration, and leveraging of telecommunications technology.

Wyoming Telehealth Network Webinar

Join us for our next Webinar:

School-Based Telehealth Opportunities:

Increasing Broadband and Access for

Improved Student Health Outcomes

Presenter:

Matt McCullough, Associate Director

Utah Education and Telehealth Network

Wednesday, May 26, 2021

12:00pm - 1:00pm (MT)

Click Here to Register for Session

May Provider Spotlight

Jennifer Knerr is the Athletic Trainer for the University of Wyoming’s Campus Recreation & Wellness Center. She has worked as an athletic trainer for over 20 years in various settings including collegiate and high school athletics, an outpatient physical therapy clinic, and as an instructor for Sports Medicine related classes in both the high school and university settings. She shared her telehealth expertise in managing concussions at a recent conference and the WyTN caught up with her afterwards to learn more about her inventive telehealth work.

Click Here to Read Full Article

When did you begin offering telehealth services? What prompted the need to offer these services?

Jennifer Knerr: As an Athletic Trainer, I feel like I have done some sort of telehealth for a long time. It is a regular occurrence that athletes, patients, (and of course my own siblings and parents), call with questions about a new injury, previous injury, illness, or health condition. Some athletes on teams I work closely with have initiated a video call to ask about something that has happened. All of this I would consider telehealth. Like many people, I started to formally offer telehealth at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since I work in a gym, we closed the middle of March and my EMR platform already had a telehealth option that I had used very rarely. I quickly learned how to use this feature and began offering formal telehealth appointments.

How do you think implementing telehealth now will affect how things will be done at your organization after the pandemic is over?

Jennifer: I will continue to offer the option of telehealth for students. I believe we will adapt to have more of a hybrid approach to health care. There are certainly more reasons than COVID-19 as to why a virtual appointment would be helpful for a patient. I think that this forced implementation of telehealth will benefit the Athletic Training services at the University of Wyoming as well as the students we serve.

Emergency Broadband Benefit

The Federal Communications Commission has launched a temporary program to help families and households struggling to afford Internet service during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Emergency Broadband Benefit provides a discount of up to $50 per month toward broadband service for eligible households and up to $75 per month for households on qualifying Tribal lands.

Eligible households can also receive a one-time discount of up to $100 to purchase a laptop, desktop computer, or tablet from participating providers.

Eligible households can enroll through a participating broadband provider or directly with the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) using an online or mail in application.

You can learn more about the benefit, including eligibility and enrollment information, by visiting www.fcc.gov/broadbandbenefit, or by calling 833-511-0311.

NRTRC Online Telehealth Training

The Northwest Regional Telehealth Resource Center has a mission to advance the development, implementation, and integration of telehealth programs in rural and medically under-served communities. The purpose of the program is to assist health care providers, organizations, and networks in implementing cost-effective telehealth programs to serve rural and medically under-served areas and populations.

The NRTRC hosts a variety of comprehensive asynchronous course to improve telehealth knowledge in several different areas of interest for students and professionals of all skill levels. To see their catalogue of offerings, please visit: https://nrtrc.catalog.instructure.com/

Wyoming Telehealth Consortium

Request for Membership

Ideal candidates should have an interest or experience in the Wyoming Telehealth Consortium's mission and have sufficient time available to prepare for and attend monthly meetings. The mission of the Wyoming Telehealth Consortium is to enhance collaboration and alignment between collaboration organizations, key stakeholders, and consumers to promote telehealth initiatives in order to improve equity in and access to health services in Wyoming. Further information on the WTC can be found at http://wyomingtelehealth.org/consortium/. Appointment will be maintained for a period of two years.

Click Here to View Membership Request Form

Please note: The May WTC meeting has been cancelled due to the Power of Rural conference. The next Wyoming Telehealth Consortium meeting will be on Tuesday, June 29 at 3:00pm.

Community Health Special Interest Group

To broaden the Special Interest Group and potentially create more unique partnerships for increased access to healthcare, the Public Health Nursing SIG unanimously decided to change its name to Community Health and expand its membership to all community health professionals including public health nurses. If you know of anyone who would benefit from being apart of this monthly meeting, feel free to reach out.

Special Interest Groups

PLEASE NOTE: Starting in July, the Community Health SIG will meet on the first Friday of every month from 12:00pm - 1:00pm. The June meeting will be the last meeting at the current date and time.

The Telemental Health SIG is also having a time and date change. Beginning in July, the group will meet on the last Thursday of the month, from 12:00pm - 1:00pm. The June meeting will be the last meeting at the current date and time.