South Dakota will receive $7.2 million in federal Rural Health Transformation Program funding to expand telemedicine inside ambulances and upgrade emergency medical services, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced in a release on Oct. 2. The money will fund 25 projects led by local ambulance services, hospitals, community organizations, education partners, and statewide EMS support organizations.
The goal is to connect patients with emergency physicians and nurses while they are still on the road, before they reach a hospital that may be an hour or more away. In a state where many towns sit far from the nearest hospital, a long ambulance ride can be a dangerous part of a heart attack, stroke, farm injury, or highway crash.
