AHN Grove City Hospital Receives USDA Award for Telestroke and Digital Nursing Programs

Wednesday, January 22, 2025

Press Releases

Grove City, PA- Allegheny Health Network (AHN) Grove City Hospital (GCH) has received a grant totaling nearly $500,000 from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), combined with matching funds from AHN.

The award will help GCH advance two telemedicine programs designed to improve patient care and health outcomes for rural populations across Mercer, Lawrence, Venango and Butler counties. 

Rural hospitals across the country continue to face a number of challenges, such as maintaining sufficient nursing staff to provide inpatient care, as well as providing timely access to stroke treatment. Through this grant, GCH will be able to address these critical care needs by augmenting its tele-neurology program and implementing a digital nursing program.

The grant comes through the USDA's Rural Utilities Service program, which helps pay for much needed infrastructure and telemedicine improvements in rural communities.

"This funding will address these issues directly," said Christopher Clark, DO, MHA, president of AHN Grove City Hospital. "By integrating digital nursing and expanding the teleneurology program, AHN Grove City is proactively taking steps to enhance patient care and improve health outcomes for the rural communities we serve."

AHN launched its first digital nursing program in 2023 at AHN Forbes Hospital, and the program has since demonstrated positive impacts on patient care. Utilizing remote communication technologies, digital nurses partner with bedside nurses to interact with patients, ask and answer questions, provide education and complete admissions and discharges more efficiently.

Digital nurses are not intended to replace bedside nursing staff, but rather to complement and enhance their work by providing an extra set of "digital" hands.

"The Digital Nursing program will equip patient rooms with cutting-edge audio-visual technology, including mounted televisions and cameras that facilitate real-time interactions between patients and digital nurses," said Alicia LaPalombara, Director of Clinical Informatics and Digital Health. "Patients will benefit from the presence of digital nurses who can manage administrative components of tasks like admissions, discharges, and patient rounds, freeing up bedside nurses to focus on direct, hands-on care."

GCH's telestroke program is heading into its fifth year. The 24/7 service provides access to AHN vascular neurologists who are based outside of the hospital, and who remotely assess and treat hospital patients with acute stroke symptoms. Sophisticated AI technology aids GCH physicians and stroke doctors in treatment and transfer decisions by quickly assessing neuroimaging that determines the volume and location of healthy, at-risk, and dead brain tissue following a stroke.

"This initiative will help grow and sustain the program, enabling our clinicians to provide timely and effective stroke care to patients in urgent need, reducing the risk of complications and improving patient outcomes," said Stephen Samples, MD, AHN Chair of Neurology. "Through this kind of program, we're addressing some of the most pressing health care needs in these rural communities."

GCH recently received the 'Pennsylvania Rural Health Community Program of the Year Award,' presented by the Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health (PORH). The award recognizes an exemplary health program that addresses a local identified need in a rural community utilizing unique, creative and innovative approaches to increase access to health care services and increase community health outcomes.

To learn more about telehealth services at AHN, visit https://www.ahn.org/appointments/telehealth.