The HealthyEmail Program gave six Dell computers to the Health Resource Alliance as part of the pilot project.
By SAUNDRA AMRHEIN
Published August 15, 2003
DADE CITY - One of the county's oldest community health clinics has received six free computers as part of a federal program to help low-income patients e-mail directly with their doctors.
Health Resource Alliance Inc. in Dade City received the six Dell desktop computers this week as part of the federal HealthyEmail Program.
The two-year pilot project will allow for at least three patients at any given time with conditions such as high-risk diabetes and high-risk pregnancy to tap into a secure Web site run by the nonprofit HealthyEmail Program, a spokeswoman for Health Resource Alliance, Liz Helms, said Thursday.
The patients will use the Web site to access e-mail accounts so they can directly communicate with their doctors employed by Health Resource Alliance, she said. Each patient likely will be allowed to stay in the program for about three months at a time.
The e-mails will help the patient tackle urgent questions and problems without needing to wait for an appointment, she added.
"This is just one more way that our patients receive services," Helms said.
And the method saves paying patients money by eliminating the need for an office visit.
Three of the computers at Health Resource Alliance will be used by patients and three will be used by doctors.
After two years, the computers will become the property of that agency, Helms said.
HRA provides affordable basic medical care, dental work and annual physicals and vaccines to mostly low-income families, many of them uninsured but not qualified for Medicaid.
The agency opened a 6,200-square-foot medical campus in late 1999 on Church Street, replacing its Clinton Avenue clinic and two smaller facilities on Fort King Road.
Helms said that patients with pressing problems might worry unless they get answers from doctors right away.
"Because they are high-risk patients, they may develop concerns," she said. "This is a personal way they can communicate with their physicians."
