About BRTA

Bay Rivers Telehealth Alliance (BRTA) is a non-profit telehealth network based in Tappahannock, VA serving residents east of Richmond and Fredericksburg, VA in rural Eastern Virginia including the Northern Neck, Middle Peninsula, and Eastern Shore. BRTA’s vision is for virtual health strategies to contribute to better health and well-being for populations in Virginia communities.

We aim to serve communities by developing telehealth projects that improve access to health services; engage patients as partners; reduce professional isolation among health service providers; and provide access to training and development of the health care workforce. Since 2012 BRTA has been successful in expanding access to medical care for rural populations via telehealth technologies-from remote, live interactive videoconferencing consults by urban-based specialists to reach rural patients and provider facilities.

BRTA has been awarded repeated grant funding by the US Health Resources and Services Administration Office for the Advancement of Telehealth, as a part of the Telehealth Network Grant Program(TNGP) which provides geriatric behavioral telehealth services throughout a rural network of healthcare sites and long-term care facilities in Southeastern Virginia through 2016. Another grant was awarded in September 2016, for a five-year school-based initiative to introduce telehealth into three rural school systems.

In April 2015 and 2018 the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy awarded BRTA a 3-year grant to implement Remote Home Monitoring and Chronic Disease Self-Management in partnership with the award-winning Eastern Virginia Care Transitions Partnership, recognized by the Virginia Center for Health Innovation and the U.S. Center for Medicare Services which provides post-discharge coaching to reduce hospital readmissions. In 2018, 2020 and 2021, BRTA received grants to coordinate Rural Opioid Response using Telehealth-Enabled Innovations.

In 2018, HRSA named BRTA a Rural Health Community Champion for our work on Evidence-Based, Promising Practices Model, which is listed in the Rural Health Information Hub for Chronic Disease Management and the COPD Tool-Kit. In 2020, BRTA received a grant to establish the Eastern Shore Telehealth Consortium, and pilot telehealth-enabled Medication Assisted Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder with the Eastern Shore Regional Jail, and healthcare providers on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.

Bay Rivers Telehealth Alliance is a membership organization including Riverside Health System, Virginia Commonwealth University, Bay Aging, Middle Peninsula/Northern Neck Community Services Board, Rappahannock Community College, Bay Workforce Investment Board, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Eastern Shore Community Services Board, Eastern Shore Rural Health Services, Central Virginia Health Services, Virginia Department of Health (Three Rivers and Eastern Shore Districts) and the Ledwith-Lewis Free Clinic.

Bay Rivers Telehealth Alliance (BRTA) is pleased to be named a Rural Health Community Champion for innovative efforts around the use of evidence-based models from US Department of Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Rural Health Care Services Outreach Grant Program. There were over 130 nominations detailing impressive work in rural communities across the country. BRTA has also been distinguished with an honorable mention in the category of creative partnerships.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Rural Health Care Services Outreach program expands health care delivery in rural areas based on evidence-based or promising practice models. HRSA Administrator George Sigounas, MS, Ph.D. “These organizations are an essential part of the health care system because they understand their local communities, are able to fill significant health care gaps and ultimately improve the quality of life for those living in rural America.”
Tappahannock-based Bay Rivers Telehealth Alliance Bridges to Care Transitions project was built around a creative integration of three evidence-based models of care with Remote Patient Monitoring, in order to improve access to and quality of rural health care among an older population with chronic illness and high rates of hospital (re)admission: The Coleman Model®, The Healthy IDEAS Model, and The Stanford Model for Chronic Disease Self-Management.
The ultimate goal of the Bridges to Care Transitions project is to assist patients in developing chronic disease self-management skills to reduce unnecessary emergency department visits or hospitalizations, as well as to understand when to seek primary care. In working with its project partners, Bay Aging, which provides Care Transition Coaching and Healthy Ideas, Middle Peninsula Northern Neck Community Service Board, Professional Support and Mental Health Services, Riverside Center for Excellence in Lifelong Health – Evaluation Team, and Riverside Health System – Remote Patient Monitoring, BRTA has been exploring a number of strategies to sustain the project beyond the lifetime of the grant. BRTA has successfully integrated telehealth and face-to-face healthcare for both physical and behavioral health among our rural population in the Middle Peninsula, Northern Neck and Eastern Shore, whose access to healthcare has been severely limited by provider shortages, long travel distances, and poverty.

BRTA has created significant impact in improving health and healthcare access, quality, and affordability through its Bridges to Care Transitions project. It is estimated that at least $919,200 in net savings has been achieved when taking into considered the cost savings for in-patient care, transportation, personal care, and caregiver and community services. Remote patient monitoring and care transitions coaching, including chronic disease self-management education and behavioral health screening and treatment, have improved health care. Bay Rivers Telehealth Alliance is a non-profit network working to connect healthcare providers, patients, educators, and consumers and their families to a comprehensive continuum of care using telehealth technologies. Members of the Alliance include Riverside Health System, HCA Capital Region Hospitals, Bay Aging, Middle Peninsula Northern Neck Community Services Board, Rappahannock Community College, Bay Workforce Investment Board, and Eastern Virginia Medical School.

Bay Rivers Telehealth Alliance serves a 12-county area with a diverse, largely rural population.
• The geographic components of the area are the Northern Neck and the Middle Peninsula, west to Richmond and outreached to the Eastern Shore.
• The counties in the Northern Neck are Lancaster, Richmond, Northumberland, and Westmoreland.
• The counties in the Middle Peninsula are Gloucester, King and Queen, King William, Essex, Mathews, and Middlesex.
• The counties on the Eastern Shore of Virginia are Accomack and Northampton.
• The region is characterized by closely knit communities, surrounded by waterways that border the Chesapeake Bay.