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Southwest Minnesota EMS will receive $9.9 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation as part of 

an initiative to improve and speed up care

The money provides 54 EMS agencies in the 18-county service region with Avel eCare’s EMS services. Ambulance rigs will be outfitted with telemedicine rigs connecting crews to board-certified physicians, experienced paramedics, and nurses for virtual peer-to-peer support in the field or during transport. 

“Treatment doesn’t start when patients arrive at the hospital, but at the first contact with emergency services,” said Rebecca Vande Kieft, vice president and general manager of Emergency Services at Avel eCare. 

“In a region where it can take up to 25 minutes for an ambulance to arrive on the scene and another 60 minutes to drive to the nearest hospital, telemedicine can speed access to post-crash care during the critical ‘golden hour’

in medicine, when the patient’s chances of survival are greatest.”

She said the company is working toward having the new rigs ready for use this fall. 

Southwest Minnesota EMS first partnered with Avel eCare in September 2023 to launch a pilot program for tele-EMS services in Slayton and Wabasso. Browns Valley also partnered with Avel eCare EMS. 

Funding for the program will enhance trauma care and potentially reduce traffic fatalities in rural communities, said Ann Jenson, executive director of Southwest Minnesota EMS Corporation. 

“We can ensure that our EMS teams, no matter how rural, can connect immediately with experienced providers to receive guidance en route to one of our 27 area hospitals,” Jenson said. 

About 35 people die per year in motor vehicle crashes in the Southwest EMS service region, with a recent high of 48 in 2022.  An average of 124 people are seriously injured. 

Crash victims in rural areas often have to wait longer for first responders, travel longer distances to receive further care and are more often treated by volunteer EMTs instead of full-time paramedics. 

As part of the new collaboration with Southwest EMS, local ambulances and hospitals, the Minnesota Department of Health and Avel eCare will  partner with the University of Minnesota Translational Center for Resuscitative Trauma Care research team to track the efficacy of the new EMS telemedicine program. 

“It’s critical to understand the effects of this innovative technology on outcomes for our patients in order to improve the lives of people in rural Minnesota,” said center director Dr. Greg Beilman. 

Avel eCare will be installed in Big Stone, Lac Qui Parle, Chippewa, Yellow Medicine, Lincoln, Pipestone, Rock, Nobles, Jackson, Murray, Cottonwood, Lyon, Redwood, Renville, Swift, Kandiyohi, Meeker and McLeod counties.

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Southwest Minnesota EMS will receive $9.9 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation as part of an initiative to improve and speed up care after crashes in rural communities.

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Jackson Forderer for MPR News

Two medical professionals practice treating a patient.

EMS receives $9.9 million to expand ambulance-based telemedicine

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