By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

Kansas just this year passed legislation to open more opportunities for telemedicine in the state, but High Plains Mental Health Center has been offering the service for almost 20 years.

Technology associated with service has greatly improved over the years and so has the center’s reach using the tech.

High Plains has 50 telemedicine interfaces at its branch offices and in medical clinics, emergency rooms and jails. Ellis County has a telemedicine unit in the court for mental health court, and High Plains is also connected to Larned State Hospital through the system.

In the last 12 months, High Plains has seen 3,500 clients for 4,500 visits via telemedicine.

“We have come to expect pretty quick access to things, and this is really a way to keep up,” Walter Hill, High Plains executive director, said. “If we order light bulbs from Amazon, they are here in two days as opposed to having to wait. We as culture, our expectations of access have increased. That is not bad. …

“Health care needs to be more responsive, and this is one of the tools that allows us to do that.”

High Plains covers a 20-county catchment area, which is about 19,000 square miles and covers about 100,000 people.

Before the advent of telemedicine technology, High Plains struggled to get therapists and psychiatrists to the far reaches of its coverage area. Today, for example in Sharon Springs, High Plains has a telemedicine unit in the rural health center.

When therapists physically had to travel to remote offices, the clients were limited to one therapist and scheduling only on the day the therapist was in town. Telemedicine increases provider choice and can increase the frequency a therapist can see a client.

The system involves cameras and television screens on both ends of the teleconference. The psychiatrist or therapist conducts a medication check or therapy session just as they would in a face-face session. If a client is seeing a psychiatrist through telemedicine at a branch office, a nurse on site would record vitals and relay them to the doctor.

Hill said nothing is lost in the video format, and research has born out telemedicine mental health is as effective as in-person services.

The telemedicine system reduces the time a client has to wait to be seen by a provider, especially in a crisis.

On-call clinicians do evaluations at night through emergency rooms or jails. HaysMed has a telemedicine unit on a cart that can be wheeled directly to a patient’s bedside.

High Plains contracts with a provider that also works with other community mental health centers across the state to provide 24/7 coverage for these types of evaluations. These contractors specialize in emergency mental health, just as a ER doctor would have a speciality in emergency medicine. High Plains has IT staff available 24/7 in case work is needed on the system.

“In the middle of the night, if someone was say in Goodland at the hospital or the police station, we would have to send a therapist from Colby,” Hill said. “If there was a patient at Norton and the on-call therapist was in Osborne, they would have to drive from Osborne to Norton, which often in the middle of the night would take two hours or more to get there. [Telemedicine] is relatively instantaneous.”

Reducing drive time is more cost efficient and helps the mental health center in recruiting staff. The system also saves drive and wait time for law enforcement officers who are either responding to a mental health emergency or dealing with an inmate who is being evaluated.

Telemedicine is still an emerging field, Hill said. In the future, telemedicine may allow more clinicians to work from their homes and someday even patients be seen from their homes. High Plains has looked at adding a part-time psychiatrist who lives in Texas and works from home.

“The whole nature of health care is being decentralized,” Hill said. “Telemedicine and Smartphone apps are the two big changes that are going to happen to health care and mental health. People can take more control of their services on their PC at home or in their smartphone app.”

For more information about High Plains and its services, call 1-800-432-0333. If you are having a mental health emergency, call 911.

Learn more about High Plains in the Hays Post’s recent story: Schwaller Center to offer care for uninsured.