RURAL EAST CENTRAL ALABAMA TRAVELS THE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY FOR HEALTH CARE SOLUTIONS
State: Alabama
Grantee: Rural Alabama Health Alliance
Counties: Fayette, Bibb, Pickens and Tuscaloosa

Rural Americans in east central Alabama are on the road to solving their health care crisis. Like their fellow rural citizens, they know first hand that health care in rural America is in jeopardy--services are either too far away, too expensive or inadequate. Physicians, nurses, and technicians who do move to rural communities face the inevitable difficulty of acquiring needed hours of continuing medical education due to distance from teaching medical centers. The road rural Alabama residents are traveling to solve their health care crisis is not the interstate highway system, but rather the information super highway. The vehicle that is helping them to get there is funding assistance from RUS. In 1995, a telemedicine project submitted by the Rural Alabama Health Alliance (RAHA) was selected for a $300 thousand Telemedicine grant.

The telemedicine system will be used to provide health care and distance learning in one of the most rural areas in Alabama. The system will link four remote hospital sites located in Bibb, Pickens, and Fayette Counties to the University of Alabama’s Interactive Instructional Telecommunications System which also links the university campuses at Tuscaloosa, Birmingham and Huntsville, Alabama. Over 90,000 people in four rural counties will benefit from a more effective local hospital and health care system, essential for economic and social well being. Telemedicine technology allows these local hospitals to treat as many patients locally as possible. This is generally the preference of the patients as well, and is cost-effective for all. Continuing medical education will become more available for physicians, nurses and other health professionals. They now have the same opportunity to be involved in “grand rounds” and conferences as physicians in urban areas. Practitioners such as LPN’s, RN’s, and XRAY Technicians can obtain the educational credits necessary to maintain their certification. The total estimated staff development cost savings of the RAHA project over a ten year period is over one quarter of a million dollars.

RUS BORROWER ASSISTS EARLY WARNING RADIO EFFORT IN NORTHEAST ALABAMA
State: Alabama
Borrower Name and ID:
Farmers Telephone Cooperative, Inc. (AL 528)
Counties: Dekalb, Etowah, Marshall, Jackson, Cherokee, and parts of St. Clair, Blount and Calhoun.
Subject: Emergency/Disaster Support

On March 27, 1994, the National Weather Service issued a warning for a tornado that was moving across Alabama in a northeasterly direction. The tornado touched down on the outskirts of Piedmont where there were no transmitters or warning systems to alert residents that they were in harms way. Without warning, the killer tornado struck Goshen United Methodist Church where services were underway. The roof collapsed and twenty members of the congregation were killed.

A study revealed that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) emergency weather alerting system only covers approximately 75 percent of the land area of the country. In a joint effort to stem the occurrence of such a disaster in the future, the RUS, NOAA, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency devised a plan to increase and improve the coverage of the NOAA emergency weather alerting system.

RUS identified borrowers in limited coverage areas and contacted them requesting that they consider donating tower space, building space, communications facilities, electrical power or funds to purchase a transmitter for their service areas. In December 1994, a transmitter located on Pea Ridge near Fort Payne, Alabama was dedicated. The tower and telephone facilities were furnished by Farmer’s Telephone Cooperative of Rainsville, Alabama. The warning system will serve over 200,000 rural residents in eight counties. On an ongoing basis, Farmer’s will provide emergency standby power for NOAA weather radio equipment so that during local power outages the warning can still be transmitted to area residents. An important feature of the alert system is the ability to turn weather radio receivers on with a special alert tone even if they have been turned off. This unique lifesaving capability can warn sleeping families or meeting groups at churches or schools of life threatening situations where most people are not listening to broadcast media.