.jpg)
PROTECT YOUR DNA WITH QUANTUM TECHNOLOGY
Orgo-Life the new way to the future Advertising by AdpathwayKansas is one of the states early out of the gates with its grant funding made available through the federal Rural Health Transformation Program. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has already awarded nearly $80 million to 39 organizations across the state to strengthen access to care in rural parts of the state.
As an example of the type of project being funded, one of the 2026 Rural Emergency Hospital Conversion and Transformative Capital Investment Program (REH/CAP) awardees received $5 million. A partnership between Great Plains Health Alliance (GPHA) and Pioneer Health Network (PHN) will deploy Avel eCare telemedicine services to 31 rural Kansas hospitals across all six Kansas Hospital Association regions, providing inpatient, emergency and psychiatric tele-coverage to stabilize rural hospital clinical and financial sustainability.
GPHA is a member-driven network of hospitals and healthcare organizations committed to strengthening rural healthcare across the region. PHN is a collaborative network of independent hospitals working together to improve access, enhance operational efficiencies, and advance care delivery across rural communities.
Through this partnership, GPHA and PHN said they are leading a coordinated, network-based approach, with Avel eCare serving as a clinical and operational partner in delivering virtual care capabilities. Telemedicine will play a central role in enhancing care delivery across emergency, inpatient, and behavioral health settings while ensuring patients can continue to receive care close to home.
"The Rural Partnership Grant Program provided a unique opportunity for Pioneer Health Network and Great Plains Health Alliance to join forces in expanding emergency, behavioral health, and hospitalist telehealth services to more of our member hospitals through our existing partner, Avel eCare," said Dee Dee Dewell, executive director of Pioneer Health Network, in a statement. “Given our long-standing presence and shared member hospitals, this is a strong demonstration of collaboration to transform care
delivery and strengthen clinical resources across 31 Critical Access Hospitals in Kansas. This will be a meaningful win for the communities we serve.”
Here are a few other examples of the work being funded in Kansas:
• Recovery Unlimited KS will create a technology-enabled substance use disorder treatment model linking community supervision, primary care and specialized treatment through Skyscape telehealth platform, establishing medical detox centers in south-central and western Kansas.
• In partnership with the University of Kansas Cancer Center, Citizen’s Foundation will establish a virtual tele-oncology program for nine northwestern rural Kansas counties and fund facility renovation, major diagnostic equipment (MRI, mammography, DEXA, ultrasound), and a Transforming Cancer Care clinical team.
• Stormont Vail HealthCare proposes PrairieLINK, a regional clinically integrated network and shared services infrastructure to strengthen rural hospital sustainability across northeastern and central Kansas through performance benchmarking, care coordination and value-based care alignment.
• Children’s Mercy Hospital, in partnership with the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas, KUMC Great Bend and Logan County Health Services, will implement the Rural Pediatric Chronic Care Network. This project will use AI-driven risk identification, Epic-integrated care coordination and telemedicine co-management to support children in rural communities with asthma, epilepsy, sleep apnea and type 1 diabetes.
Kansas also is preparing to launch a Community Health Worker + Accountable Food is Medicine Program (CHW + AFIM) program as well as an Evidence-Based Program, which will help rural hospitals and clinics build and maintain the infrastructure to implement and sustain evidence-based practices and report on performance measures that demonstrate quality of care. The state has contracted with the University of Kansas Health System Care Collaborative to operate the program.
English (US) ·