What Does Georgia's $218 Million Rural Health Investment Mean for Atlanta Area Caregivers?

Georgia is pouring federal money into rural hospitals, telehealth, dementia care and medical transportation. For Atlanta-area adults caring for parents elsewhere in the state, some of those investments could eventually make a difficult job easier.

By Randall BloomquistNext30ATL

Your mother still lives in the Georgia town where you grew up. You live in Atlanta.

Most of the time, that arrangement works. Then Mom needs to see a specialist.

Suddenly, a doctor's appointment can mean taking a day off work, driving two hours to pick her up, driving another hour to a medical center, and doing the whole trip again in reverse.

Georgia is spending more than $218 million to make situations like that less common.

The Georgia Department of Community Health announced Aug. 27 that it has committed all first-year funding for GREAT Health, the state's five-year effort to transform rural health care. The $218.9 million in first-year funding comes from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

The money is going into everything from rural hospitals and telehealth to health-care workers, dementia services and transportation.

The benefits to Atlanta-area caregivers won't be fully clear for some time. But several parts of the program are worth watching.

Bringing the doctor closer to Mom

One of the most promising investments is telehealth.

Georgia awarded grants to eight hospitals to establish 12 community telehealth “telepods.” These are intended to give rural residents places closer to home where they can connect electronically with health-care providers.

The state is also investing in technology that could allow more rural public-health locations to provide telehealth services. For an older adult who doesn't drive — or shouldn't be driving long distances — that could be significant.

Telehealth can't replace every office visit. But follow-up appointments, medication discussions and some specialty consultations can potentially be handled remotely. For an adult child in Atlanta, eliminating even a few long-distance medical trips each year could make caregiving somewhat more manageable.

Transportation is another big problem

Getting to the doctor becomes particularly complicated when an older adult lives in a nursing facility. If your father needs to see a specialist 40 miles away, who takes him? Does the nursing home provide transportation? Does someone need to accompany him? What happens if specialized transportation is required?

The state has awarded funding to the Georgia Health Care Association to study transportation needs and develop regional approaches to improve non-emergency medical transportation for nursing-home residents. Georgia is also purchasing ambulances that selected rural hospitals can use for patient transfers, potentially allowing emergency medical resources to remain available for emergencies.

Dementia care is part of the plan

Georgia also says the GREAT Health investments will strengthen dementia-care capacity in rural communities.

That's particularly relevant for families trying to help a parent remain in a longtime home.

Dementia care rarely involves just one doctor. Families may need help with diagnosis, medications, behavioral changes, home safety, caregiver support and eventually decisions about whether living independently remains possible. When those services are scarce locally, much of the burden can fall on an adult child living somewhere else.

The state has not shared when and where these services will be avaialbe or how families will access them.

Keeping rural hospitals alive matters, too

Another portion of the money is aimed at strengthening rural hospitals themselves.

Georgia is preparing 87 rural hospitals for possible participation in a new federal model known as AHEAD — Achieving Healthcare Efficiency through Accountable Design. Each hospital is receiving an individual assessment to determine its readiness.

The state is also investing in the rural health-care workforce, including training EMTs and paramedics, expanding nursing education, and helping recruit and retain medical professionals.

Thirteen hospitals are receiving funding for surgical robotics, partly to expand local surgical capabilities and help rural communities attract and retain surgeons.

What caregivers can do now

Most of these investments won't change your parent's health care tomorrow.

But Georgia families don't have to wait for GREAT Health to find help.

The state's Aging and Disability Resource Connection, or ADRC, operates in all 159 Georgia counties through a network that includes 12 Area Agencies on Aging.

For an Atlanta resident helping a parent elsewhere in Georgia, this is a great resource.

Instead of searching separately for transportation, home-delivered meals, respite care, adult day programs, in-home assistance, and other services, contact the ADRC serving the community where your parent lives for a full download of locally available services.

The ADRC's statewide phone number is 866-552-4464.