Georgia doctor’s telehealth model expands kidney care access
GEORGIA, UNITED STATES — In Georgia, where roughly three-quarters of counties are rural and more than a million adults are estimated to have chronic kidney disease (CKD), one physician’s telehealth-first model is reshaping how subspecialty care reaches underserved patients and offering a blueprint for health systems nationwide.
According to a report from Healthcare IT News, rural Americans experience a 2.7 times higher risk of developing CKD compared to their urban counterparts. The National Kidney Foundation reports that 1.2 million adults in Georgia have CKD but only 147,000 of them are aware of their condition.
CKD which is often referred to as a “silent” disease as its symptoms appear after a long time presents major difficulties for rural areas that lack access to nephrologists.
Dr. Sharica Brookins founded Remote Renal Care in 2018 as Georgia’s first fully virtual nephrology practice.
“My primary goal was to help bridge the gap by providing subspecialty care to rural areas where residents lacked local access to nephrologists,” Brookins added.
Her transition to telehealth followed a personal crisis. “My patients in rural Waynesboro were left stranded without me,” she said, after emergency maternity leave exposed how fragile access to specialty care could be.
“I transitioned to telehealth to ensure patients who feel most forgotten have consistent, reliable access to subspecialty nephrology care,” she added.
Telehealth, RPM expand kidney care access
Brookins now partners with the Veterans Affairs (VA) across Georgia and deploys mobile clinics equipped with high-tech cameras and telecommunications to bring subspecialty care directly into rural communities. “We work alongside them to provide immediate access to care,” she said.
The results have been operationally meaningful for providers: “A very low no-show rate to appointments because the convenience of virtual care removes the common obstacles of transportation and travel time,” she said.
Such shorter waits make it possible for clinicians to begin treatment early, thus slowing down the progression of kidney diseases.
Remote patient monitoring (RPM) has become central to the model. “Remote patient monitoring has become a cornerstone of my work,” Brookins said, noting that home dialysis patients benefit from closer oversight and coordinated care.
“Home dialysis patients have better outcomes and more coordinated care in their dialysis plan,” Brookins added.
For hospitals and clinics, the implications are significant: lower leakage, stronger patient engagement and more predictable scheduling across rural markets.
Scaling virtual nephrology through outsourced support
For health systems looking to replicate this model across dozens of rural markets, the lesson is clear: technology alone is not enough.
Virtual kidney care needs outsourced telehealth operations, revenue cycle management (RCM) support together with strong patient engagement systems as it requires more than additional nephrologists.
Many kidney practices in states like Georgia already rely on external partners for telemedicine infrastructure and technical support.
Extending that approach to include offshore staffing for scheduling, care coordination, RPM, and back-office RCM functions can become the next lever for cost control and scalability.
Brookins advises providers to “leverage existing local infrastructure,” coordinating with rural hospitals and labs so patients travel only minutes for diagnostics.
Combined with community outreach and broadband advocacy, the model suggests a replicable pathway for health systems seeking sustainable rural expansion, and a reminder that virtual subspecialty care is no longer optional, but essential.
