HUNTINGDON and UNION CITY, Tenn. – Baptist Memorial Health Care is expanding specialty care and advanced services to help meet the evolving needs of patients in West Tennessee through a virtual technology initiative called the West Tennessee Virtual Care Project.
The Tennessee Department of Health’s Health Care Resiliency Program awarded Baptist $3.6 million on Jan. 1, 2024, to help fund wireless network capabilities and telehealth equipment and services to expand virtual services at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Carroll County, Baptist Memorial Hospital-Tipton and Baptist Memorial Hospital-Union City. The initiative will be implemented throughout 2024.
“Baptist is committed to providing high-quality care for all the communities we serve, including Carroll County, Union City and Covington,” said Brad Parsons, vice president of West Tennessee, DeSoto and Arkansas market operations for Baptist Memorial Health Care. “Through the West Tennessee Virtual Care Project, we can fulfill our mission and provide access to specialty and subspecialty care to patients close to home without the need for them or their families to travel for higher levels of care.”
Features of Baptist’s West Tennessee Virtual Care Project include an electronic intensive care unit, a centralized cardiac monitoring unit, virtual sitters to help monitor patients at risk of falls and other injuries, and virtual nurses on wheels to help assist with discharge planning, answer questions, etc. The virtual nursing program was expanded in June 2024. However, there were some aspects of the virtual nursing program already in effect since earlier this year – virtual admission nurses started early 2024. The virtual sitters have been used by Carroll County and Tipton this entire year and the grant will allow expansion of these services in those hospitals and to Union City.
Baptist Memorial Health Care is one of the country’s largest not-for-profit health care systems and the largest provider of Medicaid in the region. Consistently ranking among the top integrated health care networks in the country, Baptist Memorial comprises 24 affiliate hospitals in Mississippi, West Tennessee and East Arkansas with a reach into Kentucky, Missouri and Central Alabama; a freestanding emergency department; more than 5,400 affiliated physicians; Baptist Medical Group, a multispecialty physician group with more than 900 providers; Baptist Cancer Center; home, hospice and psychiatric care; walk-in and urgent care clinics; a network of surgery, rehabilitation and other outpatient centers; and an education system that includes Baptist Health Sciences University and a college of osteopathic medicine. Baptist employs more than 21,000 people, and in fiscal year 2022 contributed more than $455 million in community benefit and uncompensated care to the communities it serves. For more information, please visit www.baptistonline.org, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.