127667149_s
News

Telehealth Patient Story - Maternal Fetal Medicine Spring 2020

Published Date:

Autumn Bohac of Effingham was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes when she was 16 years old. Now a 29-year-old mother of four, her health care journey reveals the everyday anxiety and pain that rural patients feel.

Autumn lives just a few blocks away from her town’s hospital. However, specialty care teams she has needed to manage her diabetes and four high-risk pregnancies have always been almost two hours away. 

With her first two pregnancies, seeing a specialist required 1.5 hours of travel. However, during her 3rd and 4th pregnancies, she was able to use telehealth for appointments with SIU Medicine’s Department of Maternal-Fetal Medicine in Springfield.

“I just can’t stress how nice it was to be able to have specialty appointments that didn’t require that I take an entire day off of work and search for childcare.” Telehealth options connecting Effingham to Springfield was “a huge improvement” to her way of life.

Still, one stressor for Autumn and millions of mothers like her is there were no options to deliver her children at her hometown hospital. With her health history and the lack of a NICU, delivering her babies required that she travel nearly 2 hours to Springfield.

Autumn wants every state and national policymaker talking about rural health to stop long enough to listen to the real-life struggles of people without transportation and access to a healthcare that includes specialists and telehealth services. She believes that if they listen to stories like hers, they will quickly realize that this isn’t about election politics at all.

“It’s about access. It’s about the everyday struggle to get the care you need. These are the stories that politicians need to listen to.”

More from SIU News

Jensik inventor award

Jensik honored as SIU Inventor of the Year

Phil Jensik, PhD, associate professor in SIU School of Medicine’s Department of Physiology, has been named SIU’s Inventor of the Year for 2024. His research explores mutations in genes that result in neurodevelopmental disorders such as intellectual disabilities, speech disorders and autism, affecting about 1 in 10 U.S. children.
Mars

Springfield physician to share Mars mission insights

Think you have what it takes to live on Mars? Springfield emergency medicine physician Dr. Nathan Jones thought he did. And now he knows for certain. Late one night in 2023, Jones clicked a link on

Psychiatrist Kalyan Kandra, MD, named top educator

Kaylan Kandra, MD, assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at SIU School of Medicine, has earned the Illinois Psychiatric Society's 2024 Educator of the Year award. "Dr. Kandra is passionate about