The Albany Gazette - When Distance Determines Survival: Avel eCare Makes the Case for Virtual Health as the Answer to America's Rural Access Crisis

SIOUX FALLS, SD / ACCESS Newswire / June 30, 2026 / In rural America, the distance to the nearest emergency room isn't just an inconvenience. It's a matter of life and death. A cardiac event in a farming community. A child with a life-threatening allergic reaction in a school 30 minutes from the nearest ambulance. A trauma patient arriving at a Critical Access Hospital where, at 2 a.m., the entire care team is one nurse and one provider.

These are not edge cases. For the nearly 46 million Americans who live in rural communities, they are the everyday reality of a healthcare system stretched beyond its limits - not by a lack of will, but by a lack of access.

Avel eCare, the nation's leading Virtual Health System, was built to change that. And with the federal Rural Health Transformation Program now creating unprecedented funding pathways for rural hospitals to modernize care delivery, the company says the moment to act is now.

"Healthcare access should not be defined by geography. It shouldn't matter if you live in a small town in the middle of South Dakota or in Atlanta or Philadelphia - you should have the same chance at a positive outcome when you need care." - Doug Duskin, CEO, Avel eCare

THE PROBLEM

Since 2010, more than 136 rural hospitals have closed nationwide. Those that remain open face mounting workforce shortages, limited specialty access, and the daily challenge of caring for patients whose conditions exceed what a small facility can handle alone.

A rural Critical Access Hospital may see between 1,000 and 5,000 emergency encounters in a year. The physicians and nurses on those teams are skilled, dedicated - and often working without the specialist backup that urban providers take for granted. When a major trauma arrives, or a patient goes into cardiac arrest, the gap between what's needed and what's available can be the difference between survival and loss.

"At 2 in the morning in a rural facility, there's typically one provider and about two nurses. If a major trauma patient comes in, a large tertiary hospital would have 10 or 12 people - several physicians - in that room. What we do is replicate that and give them more staff at the touch of a button." - Dr. Kelly Rhone, Chief Medical Officer, Avel eCare

THE SOLUTION

Avel eCare's Virtual Health System connects rural providers - in real time - with board-certified emergency physicians, intensivists, pharmacists, behavioral health specialists, and experienced nurses. Not as a replacement for local care teams, but as an extension of them: a specialist in every room, at every hour, without the cost or scarcity of full-time on-site staffing.

The scale of Avel's experience is what sets the model apart. While a rural facility may encounter a major trauma or cardiac arrest a handful of times a year, Avel's clinical teams handle over 700 cardiac arrests annually, assist with more than 2,000 serious traumas, and are projected to support more than 3.5 million patient encounters across all service lines this year alone.*

That depth of repetition - what Avel calls "reps and sets" - means the expertise available at the push of a button isn't theoretical. It's practiced, proven, and immediately deployable to any partner facility in the country.

"We don't just show up for the big, bad, and ugly. We tell our partners: call us on anything. Every call makes that relationship stronger, and every difficult case they get through with our support is one more reason their community gets to keep its hospital." - Dr. Kelly Rhone, Chief Medical Officer, Avel eCare

THE OPPORTUNITY

The federal Rural Health Transformation Program represents a rare convergence of national policy and practical need. Designed to help states strengthen rural healthcare systems through innovative care models, workforce support, and technology investment, the program is creating new funding pathways for hospitals that have long known what they need - but lacked the resources to act.

Avel eCare is already supporting that work. In Kansas, the company is partnering with Great Plains Health Alliance and Pioneer Health Network following a recent RHTP award, expanding telemedicine-enabled care across rural Kansas hospitals. Similar opportunities are emerging in states across the country as healthcare leaders recognize that virtual health isn't a supplement to rural care - it's the infrastructure that makes rural care sustainable.

"States are rethinking how care is delivered in rural communities, and virtual health is becoming a foundational part of that future. We're here to make sure that no matter where a patient lives, they have access to the care they need." - Doug Duskin, CEO, Avel eCare

Hospitals and health systems interested in learning how Avel eCare's Virtual Health System supports Rural Health Transformation funding opportunities can visit: https://www.avelecare.com/rural-health/

ABOUT AVEL ECARE

Founded in 1993 as the nation's first virtual hospital, Avel eCare provides virtual emergency, EMS, critical care, pharmacy, clinic, senior care, and behavioral health services to healthcare partners across the U.S. The organization specializes in expanding access, improving outcomes, and supporting care delivery in rural and underserved communities.

Contact:

Jessica Gaikowski, Director of Marketing & Communications

[email protected] | 605.606.0150

SOURCE: Avel eCare

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

(P.Davis--TAG)