Today SilverSummit Healthplan held a grand opening event for a new telehealth space at the William N. Pennington Life Center in Fallon.
Churchill County Social Services partnered with SilverSummit Healthplan to provide this dedicated space at the Life Center, offering telehealth service and access to valuable resources for all residents of Churchill County.
This new free space offers a place for telehealth medical appointments between residents of all ages and their physician.
The new hub will help locals living in rural communities connect with health care providers outside of Fallon.
Cheri Glockner, the Director of Marketing and Government Relations for SilverSummit Healthplan says the quality of your healthcare should not be dependent on where you live in Nevada.
They're calling this new telehealth space 'The Hub' and it will be available to the community Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.
In the space they have a tablet in the room to connect the patient with a physician.
Glockner says “The access to primary care providers and specialists, it’s really hard to live in rural Nevada and have to drive a long time, a long way, to get these services. So, the more we can do to bring those to these rural communities, we’re really excited to be able to do that.”
Telehealth technology has been around for a long time, but Glockner says being able to provide the actual equipment to conduct the appointments has been the challenge.
Myles Getto, the Chairman for Churchill County Commissioners tells us about the space.
“I got a chance to go in there and it’s very nicely built, nicely put together," he said. "There’s two different tablets, so one for the general public and there’s one for anyone who needs resources in our community to go to and look on there and figure out what they can find in the community.”
They say the tablet itself is very user friendly as it walks you through your appointments step by step.
Getto says “It’s very exciting, especially in rural Nevada it’s hard to find good reliable healthcare and this offers the opportunity for anyone of all ages to come in here and get reliable healthcare.”
He adds “The rural aspect is the biggest thing. We don’t live in Reno or Las Vegas where there’s a magnitude of hospitals and especially being located in the William N. Pennington Life Center senior citizens have easy access to it so it makes it convenient.”
