Daily Archives: October 12, 2007

Brief Intro to ConnectKentucky

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KentuckyThanks to Bernadine Joselyn for sending me Wiring rural America, a article published in the Economist last month. I was so excited to get it because I had actually been meaning to learn more about ConnectKentucky.

I learned about ConenctKentucky (a little bit) while listening to a recent senate committee meeting. So, it’s an example that policy makers know about – and one they think works very well.

According to the ConnectKentucky president, 98 percent of Kentucky will have access to inexpensive broadband by the end of the year. It sounds as if one of their first steps was to map interest and demand for broadband access. So smart in that a) helps you build a business plan and b) helps provide education that builds demand.

Kentucky is a shining star – and apparently they are bridging out to provide the same services to West Virginia and Tennessee. The article goes on to say that the rest of the US has not been as successful and one of the reasons is that some of the money intended to support rural broadband through the RUS (Rural Utilities Service) has gone to suburban areas that didn’t really need it.

I’m sure that’s true I’ve certainly heard it before – but I think/hope that the FCC and the RUS are starting to recognize the potential of that problem and are trying to be more careful about who gets the funding. Mostly I enjoyed the article for the brief description of ConnectKentucky.

Broadband Conference: Speaker Intro: Pat Wickham

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Another speaker bio from the upcoming Broadband conference…

Pat WickhamPat Wickham, BSN, PHN, Director of Home Care and Hospice Services for Lakewood Health System Home Care and Hospice program.

Short Bio
I have worked for Lakewood Health System for 20 years, beginning my career as an LPN in the care center setting. Lakewood Health System has been instrumental in assisting me with career goals to achieve baccalaureate education in the field of nursing and to ladder up to my current position as Director of Home Care and Hospice. Our agency is a rural home care/hospice program servicing approximately 100 home care patients and 15 hospice patients in the heart of central Minnesota on a monthly average. We provide services to home care and hospice patients mainly in Todd County, but also provide services to patients referred in Cass, Wadena, Crow Wing, Morrison, and Ottertail Counties. We employ 3 RN Clinical Care Coordinators, 6 Staff RN’s, 2 Staff LPN’s, 20 Home Health Aides, 1 Licensed Social Worker, 1 Chaplain, 10 hospice/palliative care volunteers and 2 departmental secretaries. Our main office is located in Staples, Minnesota, but we have satellite offices in Long Prairie and Pillager, MN. Our intention as a grant recipient is to learn how we can achieve an increased level of customer service and improved health status of our patients, while controlling costs and need for “hands on care” by utilizing telemedicine services through broadband applications in the rural communities we service.

What aspects of broadband are on your mind these days?

I have been thinking about the use of telemedicine services in some of our very rural communities and have been wondering is the use of these services may indeed be limited by the lack of broadband applications in those areas. This will be something that we will need to investigate as we move forward in our attempts to provide telemedicine services to patients in those rural communities.

What are you hoping to learn at the conference?

I am hoping to hear about all the different kinds of projects that are being initiated with broadband services. There may be some information/material that will be helpful to us in our planned telemedicine project.