Northern Arizona Telemedicine
Programs Form Cooperative Alliance
B y N a n c y Ro w e
May 9, 2014
T
elemedicine is burgeoning in
northern Arizona, thanks largely to
three Flagstaff-based telemedicine
programs. All three programs are notfor-profit, bringing services to medically
underserved areas and populations
throughout the five counties of northern
Arizona. All three programs have won
acclaim for their telemedicine programs.
And all three have collaborative,
innovative leaders.
Meet the players
Northern Arizona Regional Behavioral
Health Authority
Northern Arizona Regional Behavioral
Health Authority (NARBHA), which
contracts with the state to manage
behavioral health services for the Medicaid
population and those with serious mental
illness in northern Arizona, started its
telepsychiatry program in 1996 with
funding from the same legislative grant
that started the Arizona Telemedicine
Program (ATP).
Flagstaff Medical Center
Flagstaff Medical Center (FMC) has a
three-and-a-half-year-old telemedicine
program that is clinically based, with a
focus on reservation work.
FMC has won two USDA Grants funding
14 telemedicine carts deployed at Indian
Health services tribal and community
hospitals throughout northern Arizona to
provide telecardiology and other medical
specialty services, including a cart at
Supai, a Havasupai village at the bottom
of the Grand Canyon.
FMC’s “Care Beyond Walls and WiresTM”
is a successful home-monitoring program
that is drastically reducing hospital
readmission rates and improving the
health of patients with chronic illnesses
such as congestive heart failure.
How we met
Since then, NARBHA’s program has
grown to include 90 endpoints. With 25
psychiatric providers throughout Arizona
and the cou