Bridging the Healthcare Access Divide: A Strategic Planning Model for Rural Telemedicine Network

Balancing access to healthcare and sustaining operational efficiency is a major issue in strategic planning of rural healthcare delivery systems. In this regard, telemedicine is being adopted as a versatile and low cost mechanism for delivering rural healthcare. This article presents a strategic planning model that incorporates different operational and service elements of the rural telemedicine healthcare network. Real‐world data from the rural Black‐belt region in the United States are used in a case study. A novel statistical approach based on decision trees and logistic regression is used to estimate demand of healthcare at the county level. Key issues such as the location of telemedicine health centers, coverage of health services, configuration of medical equipment, and patient travel policies are explored in light of patient demographics, scale of health coverage, and disease prevalence patterns. Results indicate that telemedicine networks can effectively improve healthcare services in rural areas with requisite operational efficiency.