I was recently introduced to chislic. If you’re not familiar with chislic, it’s cubed and deep fried red meat, an iconic staple found only in South Dakota. There was a saucer-sized plate of the stuff in front of me at a family restaurant in downtown Sioux Falls. I had reservations there with my contact at Avera eCare on November 8.

Avera eCare is quietly one of the nation’s leading telemedicine providers. They serve more than 400 locations in 18 states, impacting more than 1 million lives. They operate in 13 percent of all Critical Access Hospitals in the nation.

Leaders at Avera eCare attended URAC’s Telemed Leadership Forum in March 2018. Since that time, we’ve been nurturing that relationship with the goal being to sign the organization as a Telehealth accreditation client.

As part of my visit to Sioux Falls I had the opportunity to meet directly with their Executive team. The meeting went well. How good was the meeting? Note the photo of our Standards document included here. The tabs throughout are the clear indications of an organization serious about their work. They’re committed to quality and excellence. The Avera eCare leadership wants to further that commitment by demonstrating adherence to the nation’s most comprehensive Telehealth standards.

We’re in the process of continuing the conversation with the leadership there, answering the last few outstanding questions, and striving toward finalizing a contract.

The early adopters of our program are shaping up to be the larger, leading edge practitioners of telehealth. This notion is confirmed on a near daily basis as the sales team interacts with prospects, meets face-to-face, travels to their offices and attends conferences.

There’s a strong possibility that Avera eCare will become our next Telehealth client. If that’s the case, chislic will no longer be the only iconic staple in South Dakota.