North Carolina Sees Chance to Upgrade Broadband, Telehealth
COVID-19 is showing that too many people lack broadband for telehealth in North Carolina, state officials said Tuesday on a web-based meeting of the Governor’s Task Force on Connecting North Carolina. Noelle Talley, deputy chief of staff to Gov. Roy…
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Cooper (D), hopes “we can use the urgency and also the energy of this time to push to get more people connected.” Simply having internet available doesn’t mean quality is adequate, the state officials said. “It’s slow and it’s spotty, and for many people, it’s expensive,” said North Carolina Commerce Department Chief Deputy Secretary Liz Crabill, noting 800,000 filed for unemployment there. Crabill hopes for “renewed interest across the state” to upgrade broadband. The coronavirus gave an “unprecedented” opportunity to move telehealth forward, said Office of Rural Health Director Maggie Sauer. The state’s work on telehealth has “definitely been expedited” by COVID-19, agreed Rural Health Information Technology Program Manager Lakeisha Moore. Center for Rural Health Innovation Medical Director Steve North also sees opportunity with telehealth reaching a saturation point, but said it’s too bad it took a public health crisis to get most physicians to fit telehealth into their practice. Provide quality of care, not just access, he urged.