Good Samaritan Will Link To Guam
Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles has secured a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide telemedicine services to the nation's most remote territory.
The hospital received a $417,560 grant from the USDA that would allow members of its medical staff to provide care via teleconferencing at six public health sites on the island of Guam.
Good Samaritan currently provides some telemedicine consultations in neurology, but the Guam project will prove whether the urban hospital “can provide telemedicine to a remote area,” said Michael Gomez, the hospital's vice president of business development.
Although Guam is a U.S. territory, it is located more than 6,000 miles southwest of Los Angeles and is considerably closer to Indonesia and Australia.
While the island's population has grown more than 50% since the 1980s, it has only a single civilian hospital with just 158 beds. A Phillipine company plans to open another 130-bed acute care facility on the island, likely in 2015.
Meanwhile, the Guam healthcare market is in some disarray. Although portions of the Affordable Care Act are in effect, including the ban on medical underwriting, Guam residents cannot use tax subsidies to purchase insurance, and there is no individual mandate.This has in effect kept many insurers from offering coverage, and island's uninsured rate hovers at around 35%.
The telemedicine initiative is expected to be operational next year, according to Gomez, and will likely offer 40 to 50 consultations monthly. They will be offered in emergency medicine, cardiology, gastroenterology, infectious diseases, neurosurgery, oncology, orthopedics, otolaryngology, rheumatology, and urology. Registered dieticians will also provide nutritional counseling and community health education.
“Good Samaritan Hospital can provide much needed health services to areas that lack access to specialized care, especially for those that live in remote areas. This is our next step in our historical commitment to Guam,” said Good Samaritan Chief Executive Officer Andrew Leeka. He added that the hospital had previously opened an on-island patient services office, and its medical and surgical specialists have also visited the island.
The telemedicine project does have challenges, such as overcoming an 18-hour time difference between the two locales. “We're going to be working all of this out,” Gomez said.
