In an article for RHIhub’s Rural Monitor, Allee Mead highlighted Helmsley’s rural ultrasound initiative and its work in support of the program’s goal to ensure rural communities have access to the latest healthcare technology and enhanced quality of care close to home. Through interviews with Helmsley Trustee Walter Panzirer, Rural Healthcare Program Director Wayne Booze, and grantees involved in the initiative, including McKenzie Health physician Dr. Waco Goodnight and High Quality Medical Education co-clinical director Tom Pahl, the article details how providers can use point-of-care ultrasounds (POCUS) to enhance their clinical assessment and more quickly inform their clinical decision-making.
When patients must be transferred from a rural emergency department to a larger facility, “it delays care, it delays diagnosis of a medical condition,” Helmsley Trustee Walter Panzirer said. It’s why POCUS devices are so valuable – obtaining diagnostic information at the bedside can change how physicians deliver care in the moment.
The initiative has not only provided over 600 ultrasound devices across the four states but also supported training and tuition assistance. “Generally speaking, there’s a lack of mentors and preceptors for doing ultrasound,” Helmsley’s Rural Healthcare Program Director, Wayne Booze, was quoted as saying. “By providing training throughout the states, it gives more opportunities for those education programs…to expand their footprint and the crop of providers that might be able to help be a preceptor.”
