SIU Med School/Utlaut Health Services Announce Partnership

Funding for a new health care service in South Central Illinois is being provided to Utlaut Memorial Hospital in Greenville thanks to a partnership between the hospital and Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. The project is another in a series of the School's Rural/Downstate Health Initiative (RHI) partnerships.

The grant of $44,153 is helping fund the purchase of a new high speed Internet-based teleradiology system, which replaces an old system that transmitted images very slowly over a standard phone line. More than one thousand patients per year are expected to benefit from the new system.

This new equipment also will allow radiologists and members of the Utlaut medical staff including primary care physicians and consulting specialists to have access to CT, MRI and ultrasound images and X-rays when they are working at their clinics, from home and other sites. This accessibility will significantly improve the timeliness of treatment for acutely injured patients seen in the emergency department.

"We are very pleased with our partnership with SIU School of Medicine because this grant will help provide a much needed health care service for the residents of Bond County and surrounding areas by helping emergency department and other physicians treat patients more quickly and efficiently," said Jim Hayes, Utlaut Health Services president and chief executive officer, during a press conference announcing the grant.

"SIU is proud to support the Utlaut Memoiral Hospital for this project because it helps bring a cutting-edge service to their patients and increases the likelihood that patients can be treated locally," said John Record, assistant dean for rural and alumni affairs at SIU who coordinates the School's RHI program.

SIU School of Medicine has been working with downstate physicians, hospitals and health care agencies to assess health care needs of the region. Additional support for the School's on-going efforts to improve health care in the region has come from the Illinois Legislature through the Rural/Downstate Health Act, which began in 1994. Its goal is to improve health care in the rural and medically underserved areas of the state and is funded with a state supported budget of $1.8 million per year. Nearly 60 RHI partnerships have been developed by SIU.

For more information about Utlaut Memorial Hospital, call Alan Gaffner, 618-664-1230, ext. 3222 weekdays.

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