Q&A: w/ Heather Anderson, Virginia Department of Health
When the Virginia State Office of Rural Health began taking steps toward updating the Commonwealth’s Rural Health Plan, it took a step back to ask a foundational question: What is a healthy community? The answer to that query has helped to shape the 2022-2026 Virgina Rural Health Plan.
The plan includes 13 areas of attention, with five being designated as a priority. One of those five is telehealth. We asked Heather K. Anderson, MPH, the division director of Primary Care & Rural Health and the Director of the State Office of Rural Health to talk about the role that telehealth will play in the Rural Health Plan.
What role does the Virginia Rural Health Plan envision for telehealth?
One of the things that we do as a state office is to provide resources and technical assistance, so we had identified telehealth – even prior to the pandemic – as an area of opportunity to address the health needs of rural Virginia. We wanted to make sure that policies were in place that would help with the adoption of telehealth as well as assess the resources that will be needed. We needed to know, for example, where broadband was available and where it wasn’t. We’ve started out by funding a few projects – providing iPads in underserved areas to creating a program that uses emergency rescue squad locations as a venue where rural residents can access telehealth. And we’ve done a lot of education to help policymakers and elected officials understand what is needed.
So much of the momentum around telehealth has happened as a result of the pandemic, but you recognized the potential of telehealth even before COVID.
We’ve all seen how the pandemic helped make telehealth take hold much more quickly than it likely would have done. It forced providers to adapt, and they learned quickly about how telehealth could be employed and how efficient it is. Before the pandemic, and even at the beginning, people didn’t have the capacity – the technical capacity – to use telehealth. The patients didn’t have the bandwidth or the clinics didn’t, so there was a push to create more resources. But there also was a learning curve for providers. They needed to make sure that they were getting the same information, and even the same warmth, as they would during an in-person visit. Patients needed to learn how to use their screens and be comfortable with them. Not everyone is comfortable using technology in that way.
One of the great promises of telehealth is that it will help solve the problem of lack of providers in rural areas. That’s significantly different from rural folks having a relationship with a trusted doctor in their own community. Do you anticipate that will be an issue?
At the heart of the matter, I think people would prefer to be seen by a provider they know and trust, but that is not always an option. Expanding access is going to be critical if we are going to get people the care they need. We don’t have a lot of psychiatrists in rural areas of the state, for example, and so folks may have to even cross state lines to find a trained professional who can see them. And that’s a good thing.
The plan runs through 2026. What do you envision telehealth will look like in rural Virginia come 2026?
That’s a good question. What we’re trying to do is identify some metrics that we can measure, and so for telehealth, that centers around connectivity and the access that rural communities will have. So, by 2026, the hope is that everyone’s going to have access via connectivity.
To view the 2022-2026 Virginia Rural Health Plan, visit vdh.virginia.gov.