Telehealth in Rural Hospitals: Lessons Learned from Pennsylvania PDF

Preface

This project was made possible, in part, by a grant from the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, a legislative agency of the Pennsylvania General Assembly. The report we compiled could not have been done without the able assistance of Gary Bankston, MBA program graduate, and Justin Roach, undergraduate student in the College of Business at Kutztown University. Additionally, Bill Roth of Kutztown University and Roger Jahnke of Health Action were particularly helpful as we defined our survey initially. We are grateful for the cooperation and above-and-beyond help from many of the people with whom we interviewed and the organizations that distributed the survey, including Robert Torres, Chris Cavanaugh, Cindi Christ, Brent Ennis, Carol Zelkin, Martin Ciccocioppo, Matt McGeorge, Bruce Weidman, Jeffrey Levi, Marlene Maheu, Lisa Davis, Joseph Tracy, Brendan Harris, Heather Stauffer, and Judy Schwank. I take full responsibility for any errors or omissions and give full credit to the entire team for the various aspects for which each was responsible.

Furthermore, this book itself would not have happened if Bill Roth had not urged me to contact Kristine Mednansky at Taylor & Francis. I’d been publishing my own books for a while, so I could easily have published this one as well. But Kristine convinced me that this book deserved a bigger audience than I could reach, so I agreed to publish it under CRC Press. Additionally, I am grateful for the help and support of Sharon McLendon, who helped me with some last-minute editing and updated the website resources. I would also like to thank Stephanie Morkert, Jay Margolis, and Mimi Williams, from Taylor & Francis/CRC Press for their able project management, and Adel Rosario in production.

Finally, as always, this book is the beneficiary of the largess of my friends, family, students, and colleagues who must put up with my absences when I’m focused on a book deadline, most especially, of course, my fabulous husband, Bob, without whom I could not have accomplished anything. He will always have my deeply felt love and gratitude, and each book I finish is a testimonial to his patience and forbearance.