Telepsychiatry Helps Get Mental Health Services To Rural Iowa

By Jillian Petrus, Reporter

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By Jason Kristufek

Story Created: May 6, 2011 at 6:47 AM CDT

Story Updated: May 6, 2011 at 6:47 AM CDT

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - Iowa ranks 47th out of 50 states in the number of psychiatrists per capita and 46th per capita in the number of psychologists, according to the most recent figures available from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Dr. Alan Whitters, a Cedar Rapids psychiatrist, has treated 100 patients from his home while they stay close to theirs. He was one of the state’s earliest adapters of telepsychiatry in which patient and doctor are connected by computer link.

“All of them were rural patients,” Whitters said. “They would be hooked up at their local hospital or their clinic for a visit, and they came from a lot of different areas.”

He says telepsychiatry allows him to see more patients over greater distances than would otherwise be possible. It also allows rural patients the chance to get emergency help that might otherwise not be available save for a long trip into an urban center.

“The disadvantage is to do really good care, we need to smell and see and observe the patient,” he said. “This observation gives us clues to what’s going on that we might not otherwise see over a monitor.”

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