Baptist Health gets pandemic-relief money to expand telehealth

Baptist Health has received $873,982 from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act to expand telehealth services at its hospitals. It can use the money for technology, software and network upgrades to help provide health care to at-risk patients, according to a press release from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Dr. Brett Oliver, chief medical information officer for Baptist Health, said in the release, “This award helps us fund digital efforts to safely connect our patients and our providers. Now, each of our medical group providers in all specialties can see their own patients. In some of our rural areas of the commonwealth, the availability of providers for certain medical sub-specialties is limited. The video options allow us to spread the care in certain specialties to a broader patient population without the risk of exposure to covid-19.”

Baptist Health has hospitals in Corbin, La Grange, Lexington, Louisville, Madisonville, Paducah and Richmond, and is acquiring Hardin Memorial Hospital in Elizabethtown.