By TIM UNRUH

Special to The Hays Daily News

PHILLIPSBURG -- Great Plains Health Alliance will receive $5.2 million in loans to purchase health records equipment and software for 22 rural hospitals in a project to offer clinical telemedicine services, a move toward going paperless.

A non-profit corporation, Phillipsburg-based Great Plains operates 20 critical-access hospitals in Kansas and Nebraska. Some hospitals in the program are not leased or managed by the alliance.

Hospitals are mandated to comply with a federal requirement to process health records electronically by 2015, said Roger John, president of Great Plains Health Alliance.

"It's not going to eliminate all paper, but it does allow us to use electronic ordering," John said. "The real push, I think, is you're able to work within the system and send records anywhere for your patients ... share those records with the practitioners who might need them in places where your patients might be."

When completed in a couple of years, the hospitals can provide real-time virtual consultations, diagnostic examinations, digital diagnostic imaging, remote monitoring and other specialty services, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture release.

Great Plains borrowed $3 million directly from the USDA's Rural Development division and obtained a $2.2 million loan from First National Bank and Trust in Phillipsburg. The USDA has guaranteed 90 percent of that local loan.

The alliance has 10 years to pay the debt.

In north-central and northwest Kansas, the project will assist Cheyenne County Hospital, St. Francis; Herington Municipal Hospital; Logan County Hospital, Oakley; Ottawa County Health Center, Minneapolis; Phillips County Hospital, Phillipsburg; Rawlins County Hospital, Atwood; Republic County Hospital, Belleville; Smith County Memorial Hospital, Smith Center; and Trego County-Lemke Memorial Hospital, WaKeeney.

Great Plains Health Alliance has been working on the transition for a number of years, John said.

"We've got a number of the pieces put together already, installing labs in a number of hospitals, which allows you to order tests electronically," he said.

Another phase involves pharmacies, and more are to follow.

"Then we'll work toward a health information exchange, sharing health records," John said.

He acknowledges that people are concerned about their records once they're part of the electronic world. The project endeavors to ensure that records are kept safe and confidential.

"The nonpaper world is new," John said. "We hope that hospitals that use (electronic records) will provide a safer environment for patients, and we hope we'll be able to provide the health records to people who need them, whether they're local practitioners or not."

He is unsure whether the new equipment will result in savings or if there will be overriding costs. The project is expected to create or save roughly 41 jobs, according to a USDA release.

"The future will tell," John said. "It's kind of a new frontier."