Monument Health Awarded Grants to Expand Rural Care Access

Monument Health has been awarded two grants through South Dakota's Rural Health Transformation Project, state funding aimed at strengthening access, quality, and long-term sustainability of rural health care. The grants will support Care Connect and the Telemed Transfer Center, two initiatives designed to bring more timely, specialized care to patients across Monument Health's rural and frontier service area.

"We're honored to receive this support from the State of South Dakota and CMS," said Alan Solano, Vice President of Governmental Affairs, Monument Health. "Both of these projects are about the same thing, getting patients the right care, closer to home, faster. That matters everywhere we serve, but it matters most in our rural and frontier communities, where a delay in specialty access can mean the difference between a manageable health issue and a preventable emergency."

Care Connect will expand access to Monument Health's existing specialty and primary care capacity through centralized scheduling, referral management, digital self-scheduling and expanded use of Epic Cheers. The program is expected to create capacity for more outpatient visits, with an estimated 18,000 Medicaid recipients benefiting annually, a population disproportionately affected by transportation barriers and limited local care options. Phase 1 will prioritize primary care and obstetrics & gynecology, addressing significant gaps in maternal health access across the region.

The Telemed Transfer Center will expand telemedicine infrastructure across Monument Health's Critical Access Hospital network, including telestroke and teletrauma consultation, along with expanded specialty support in behavioral health, cardiology, pulmonology, endocrinology, and infectious disease. The project is expected to directly benefit more than 85,000 rural residents, reducing unnecessary transfers, improving stroke response times, and strengthening the ability of rural providers to care for patients locally.

Monument Health is working with the South Dakota Department of Health and Department of Social Services to finalize grant contracts and will share additional updates as the projects move forward.