The 2024 Telehealth Program of Excellence award was presented to the Improved Care and Provision of Rural Access to Eliminate Health Disparities (iCARE) Program during the 12th Annual Telehealth Summit of South Carolina held this month in Hilton Head. The award recognizes a mature program (academic or community-based) that demonstrated considerable outcomes in the areas of clinical intervention, improved access, and community engagement.
The iCARE psychiatry program was designed to meet mental health care gaps in rural, underserved areas of South Carolina. It helps to prevent readmissions for patients needing psychiatric care.
The state of South Carolina has seen over the last two years specifically, an enormous increase in the demand for mental and behavioral health resources, according to Michael Bundy, chief executive officer for Prisma Health Midlands.
“When we don’t have programs like the iCARE program, those resources are sought out in our Emergency Department and it makes complex care that is not behavioral health compromised because the emergency rooms get overrun,” Bundy said. “What this program does is gives access to folks all across the state that wouldn’t have access to this care and keeps them out of the emergency department.”
Palmetto Care Connections is the host of the Annual Telehealth Summit of South Carolina. The Telehealth Summit brings together leaders and professionals interested in utilizing telehealth to increase access to health care.
