The Ashley Medical Center's most recent coalition with Northland Health Care Alliance, which comprises 14 rural and 1 urban tertiary center in North Dakota, has enabled us to provide such capital-intensive and  technologically sophisticated services as telemedicine and teleradiology. With the advancement of the telemedicine technology,   we are able to use the service for various purposes in addition to telemedicine.

One of the services provided is Community Education; this service is advertised and open to the the public at no charge. The telemedicine technology offers us the ability to bring expert training and education programs to the community. It enables interaction between the presenter and the participants of the programs over the network area. Three more recent community educational programs have been: Stress Management, What's New With Diabetes, and Realities of Rural Stress. The community of Ashley, having a population of about 800 people and is one of the smaller communities involved with the Alliance, had had the greatest number of participants of any of the networked members during these community sponsored events.

Currently, an ongoing paramedic program is offered through St. Alexius Medical Center that is the tertiary facility in the Alliance. This program is offered via the telemedicine technology and enables students to obtain training and become certified EMT Paramedics without having to travel to Bismarck twice a week for classes. The Ashley Medical Center's EMS coordinator and students form Oakes, ND and LaMoure, ND are currently taking this course.

In a recent analysis from the Northland Health Care Alliance, Ashley Medical Center has participated in the most telemedicine events than any other member of the Alliance. It has produced an estimated mileage and timesavings to participants in an excess of $4,000. The community support of these events has helped them realize the potential of telemedicine and the valuable tool it can be for them when they are in need of specialized medical care that is not offered at our facility.