title: Challenges of the rural healthcare pilot program broadband initiative.
abstract: The Federal Communication Commission initiated the Rural Healthcare Pilot Program Broadband Initiative in 2007 to provide funds for deployment of broadband networks to rural areas. The purpose of this paper is to highlight some of the preliminary findings of the first phase of a larger study designed to assess the implementation and effectiveness of the Rural Healthcare Pilot Program. Interviews with 40 organizations (response rate = 64.5%) that were awarded funds from the Federal Communication Commission for this project were conducted. Two questions from the interviews were coded, and overall themes are presented here. The questions are, "Did unexpected issues/challenges emerge during the planning stage?" and "What were they?" Ninety percent of the respondents stated that they had encountered challenges. The types of challenges reflect two overarching themes: program deployment issues and communication issues. The ultimate goal of this research project is to improve awareness of the challenges that telemedicine grantees often face when they receive funds from external agencies and also to use this information to facilitate this process.
authors.affiliation: Department of Telecommunications, Information Studies, and Media, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1212, USA. pwhitten@msu.edu
authors.forename: Pamela
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Whitten
authors.forename: Bree
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Holtz
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Krupinski
authors.forename: Dale
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Alverson
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D016134:Organizational Policy; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011340:Problem Solving; D016730:Program Development; D019035:Rural Health Services; D013685:Telecommunications / Q000458:organization & administration*