Healthcare Access & Rural Telehealth

Jun 28

Executive Summary

Forty percent of Lawrence County lives in a federally designated health professional shortage area. We have 67 primary care providers per 100,000 people, against a national rate of 116. Our residents die of cancer, lung disease, and stroke at rates far above the state and national average. And 15.5% of our households don't have reliable internet — which means the one tool that could put a doctor in reach of a home too far from town doesn't even reach that home.

This isn't a guess. It's what our own community told UK King's Daughters directly, in the county's most recent Community Health Needs Assessment: Lawrence County residents named broadband expansion one of the county's biggest needs, and mobile virtual health one of the top health needs, in their own words.

Here's what I'll do about it.

Connect broadband to health, not just to jobs. Every broadband push I make as commissioner includes the case for telehealth explicitly — connectivity isn't just an economic development tool, it's how a homebound senior or a working parent in a shortage area reaches a doctor without a two-hour round trip.

Bring telehealth to where people already are. Push for telehealth-capable connectivity at libraries, senior centers, and EMS stations — the same community anchor points UK King's Daughters already uses for mobile mammography and heart screenings, giving people a local, trusted place to log in even if their home internet can't handle it.

Modernize EMS into more than a ride to the hospital. Community paramedicine: prevention on wheels. Our EMS crews already see the same patients cycling through 911 calls for conditions that could have been managed with regular follow-up. A community paramedicine program — authorized under Ohio law (ORC 4765.361) — trains paramedics to make follow-up visits between emergencies: checking blood pressure, managing medications, catching problems before they become 911 calls. Ohio programs have cut ER visits by 38% and dropped some patients from 67 ambulance calls to zero. The state just received over $200 million from CMS for rural health transformation, and Lawrence County is a focus county. This is care that comes to you — no two-hour round trip, no missed work, no ER bill.

Chase the grants, not the general fund. Federal and state dollars exist specifically for rural telehealth infrastructure and EMS innovation. I'll direct the same LEDC grant-writing capacity I'm putting behind the Recovery-to-Work pipeline toward this fight too, so this doesn't cost Lawrence County taxpayers a dime.

Access to care shouldn't depend on your zip code or your internet bill.

No Strings. No Secrets. No Standing By.

[Read the Full Healthcare Access Plan ↓]

The Full Plan

The Problem, in Our Own Numbers

Source: UK King's Daughters 2025 Community Health Needs Assessment, covering Lawrence County, OH and the tri-state region.

40.3% of Lawrence County residents live in a Health Professional Shortage Area — 24,247 people, a higher share than the Ohio average of 15.8% and more than double the national rate.
Primary care access is thin. Lawrence County has 66.96 primary care providers per 100,000 residents, against 117.01 for Ohio and 116.28 nationally.
Dental access is worse. 29.19 dental providers per 100,000, against 58.27 for Ohio and 66.47 nationally.
Mental health access is a genuine strength worth protecting, not a gap — Lawrence County actually has more mental health providers per capita (1,232.83 per 100,000) than the state or national average, likely reflecting UK King's Daughters' own presence here. That's worth building on, not ignoring.
Chronic and fatal illness rates run well above state and national benchmarks: cancer deaths (316.9 per 100,000 vs. 212.2 in Ohio), lung disease deaths (112.2 vs. 57.7), stroke deaths (82.4 vs. 58.9), diabetes (13.0% vs. 11.6%), and high blood pressure (36.6% vs. 32.4%).
Opioid overdose deaths run nearly double the state rate and triple the national rate — 60.5 per 100,000, 177 deaths over five years.
15.5% of Lawrence County households have no or slow internet, and 25.2% of housing units have at least one substandard condition.

None of these numbers exist in isolation. A resident in a shortage area, without a nearby primary care provider, without reliable internet at home, is a resident who delays care until it becomes an emergency room visit or a 911 call. That's not a hypothetical — it's the exact chain the data describes.

What the Community Already Told Us

In the county's own CHNA forum, held in Lawrence County on February 25, 2025, residents identified their county's biggest needs and top health concerns directly. Among them: broadband expansion, named as one of the county's biggest needs to become the healthy county residents envision, and mobile virtual health, named as one of the top health needs facing the county today. This isn't a plan built in a vacuum — it's a plan built on what residents already said, in their own words, to the organization that serves this county's hospital needs.

What I'll Do — Within a Commissioner's Actual Authority

Connect the broadband. Bring care to where people already are. Give our medics a second job: prevention. Pay for it with grants, not your taxes.

I want to be direct about what a commissioner can and can't do here. I don't run the hospital, the health department, or the local EMS agencies. What I can do is use the tools the office actually has:

Make telehealth part of the broadband case. Every push for broadband expansion I make already treats connectivity as core economic development infrastructure. I'll make sure the case for telehealth access — for shortage areas, for homebound seniors, for families who can't take a day off work for a specialist visit two counties away — is made explicitly alongside it, not as an afterthought.

Push for telehealth access points at community anchors. UK King's Daughters already runs mobile mammography and Healthy Heart screening events at locations like schools, senior centers, and local fire departments. I'll advocate for telehealth-capable connectivity at libraries, senior centers, and EMS stations, so residents whose home internet can't support a video visit have a trusted, local place to do it anyway.

Advocate for community paramedicine. As a former paramedic supervisor and current ER nurse, I've seen the same patients cycle through emergency care for chronic conditions that could have been managed with earlier, regular follow-up. A community paramedicine model — where EMS crews check in on high-risk chronic patients between emergencies — is a proven approach in other parts of Ohio and the country. I'll push our EMS leadership and the county to explore it, the same way I'd push for any other public safety modernization in Pillar 4.

Chase outside dollars, not the general fund. Federal programs like the USDA's Distance Learning and Telemedicine grants and HRSA's rural health and telehealth funding exist specifically for counties like ours. I'll direct the same grant-writing effort I'm putting behind Recovery-to-Work and broadband expansion toward this fight, so none of this rests on Lawrence County taxpayers.

The Bottom Line

Lawrence County residents are getting sicker and dying younger than their neighbors in Ohio and across the country, and told us directly what they think would help. A commissioner can't write a prescription or build a hospital wing. A commissioner can make sure the infrastructure, the coordination, and the outside funding exist to close the gap between where care is and where our people actually live.