HeidiHeitkampValley City (CSi)  Valley City (CSi) U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp Monday toured Mercy Hospital in Valley City to see firsthand how its telehealth initiatives have become an important tool to providing quality rural health care in North Dakota.

Mercy Hospital uses telemedicine in its emergency room to remotely connect with emergency room physicians in a central hub at Avera eCARE in Sioux Falls to assist in treating trauma, access specialty support, and triage the need for higher levels of care for critical conditions.

Heitkamp said, “Where folks live shouldn’t impact the access to and quality of health care they are able to receive. By using telehealth, senior citizens, veterans and all North Dakotans from rural areas are able to receive the care they need, when they need it. Providing quality service can’t be done with just the right tools, it also requires a dedicated and knowledgeable staff like those at Mercy Hospital to assist folks receiving the care.”

Heitkamp strongly supports the use of technology to improve the access rural North Dakotans have to quality and affordable health care. Telehealth initiatives not only increase access to care for rural North Dakotans, but they also address many of the other challenges to rural health care, including the lack of specialty doctors in small communities, coping with health care workforce shortages, and enabling rural providers to find a work-life balance.