At the Citizens Health hospital in Colby, Kansas, pandemic-driven rule changes let doctors prescribe chronic pain and mental health medications over virtual appointments. That gave hundreds of patients in northwest Kansas access to life-changing drugs. “Everybody struggles with access to mental health care,” said Jenny Niblock, a nurse practitioner at the medical center. “Rural Kansas struggles even worse.” Before the pandemic, the only way to get a prescription for a federally regulated drug was through an in-person doctor’s visit. When the federal government declared the COVID-19 pandemic a national public health emergency, it let clinicians prescribe drugs remotely to reduce in-person appointments and avoid further spreading the virus.
Source: KAKE – News
