Ready access to doctors, hospitals and other healthcare professionals and services is not something that everyone can take for granted, even today.
Rural Americans live about twice as far from the nearest hospital, compared to those living in suburban and urban areas, according to a Pew Research Center analysis. Largely due to financial constraints, a rising number of rural hospitals and medical centers are also closing, making it even harder for residents to find readily accessible healthcare options.
Someone who lives in a rural community and must travel 50 miles to reach a primary care physician may postpone a doctor visit for what seems to be a bad cough with flu-like symptoms, yet later find themselves diagnosed with pneumonia and admitted to a metropolitan hospital four hours from their home.
A way to bridge this healthcare services gap is telehealth. Digital information and communications technologies can support long-distance clinical health care with video diagnostics, monitoring and remote admissions. In addition, health-related education, training, and administration services can extend healthcare services to a wider population.
For the one in five Americans (60 million people) who live in the rural United States, nowhere is the digital divide more important than in healthcare. To succeed, telehealth and its ecosystem – video conferencing, electronic health records transfer, Internet of Things (IoT) medical devices and much more -- depends upon reliable internet access and ample bandwidth, preferably fiber broadband.
How much internet speed does a typical hospital or healthcare facility require? The total bandwidth needed is determined by the volume of actions taken in a day/month/year and is dependent on how many connections the hospital has.
However, as a healthcare provider, a primary consideration is to know your network to ensure uptime, reliability and, ultimately, continuity of care in the healthcare services you provide.
Know your network
Here are some of the points we think all healthcare institutions should consider. It’s especially important to have a network provider who can provide scalability, redundancy, speed, and reliability when offering telehealth services.
Scalability – as healthcare becomes more and more reliant on technology to deliver and receive information and to support the changing technology devices being used, it is important for institutions to be able to scale their network instantly to meet growing needs.
Redundancy – redundant connections and a network built with ringed redundancy is key to ensure uptime and reliability.
Speed – unique routes will ensure data travels at the highest rate of speed and provides low latency.
Multiple connections – multiple connection options into the hospital will also ensure reliability and uptime.
All of these points are vital, especially in rural areas where patients are connected to urban environments and vice versa. Choosing a network provider who can check all the boxes will help to connect rural to urban and urban to rural more effectively.
Advancing telehealth in Nebraska through fiber broadband
Sidney Regional Medical Center (SRMC) is a critical access hospital in Sidney, Nebraska with a vision to transform healthcare and provide services not typically found in a rural community. At SRMC, a dedicated fiber broadband network connects all of its healthcare facilities throughout a seven-county region in the Nebraska panhandle. Today, a 25-bed acute care hospital, a critical care unit, a 24-hour provider-covered emergency room, surgical services, physician’s clinic, walk-in clinic, home health and hospice, extended care unit, assisted living facility and more can all share the most up-to-date health information.
For example, the direct fiber connection enables faster uploads of patient digital images, including large files associated with MRI and CT Scans as well as X-rays, to be sent to the Fort Collins location to be read by board-certified, subspecialty-trained radiologists. SRMC has also implemented electronic prescriptions.
“Three years ago we implemented a dedicated fiber line connecting all of our facilities and we’ve been extremely pleased with the benefits we’ve realized,” said Jennifer Brockhaus, Chief Information Officer at Sidney Regional Medical Center. “We now have one data center, which is much more efficient. Healthcare providers at our satellite facilities can access the latest patient charts and document in real time, which helps to speed diagnosis and facilitate treatment planning.” As for next steps, “We’re looking forward to continue implementing more telehealth features in the near future.”
Telehealth is healthy
We know telehealth works. After all, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an enthusiastic early adaptor, constantly searching for ways to expand and improve the technologies. Telehealth to Mars is undoubtedly on the horizon.
Employers are also increasingly offering employees a telehealth option, with access to low-cost virtual doctor visits from anywhere, at any time over live video.
For rural patients in America, those with limited mobility and others, telehealth programs can provide enormous benefits.
Telehealth can make healthcare more accessible to everyone, no matter where they live. The Rx? Fiber broadband, with scalability, redundancy, speed and reliability.
Wyatt Leehy is the Manager of IT and NOC Services at Great Plains Communications, the largest independent telecommunications provider in Nebraska. It has built an 11,500 mile fiber broadband network connecting more than 140 hospitals and clinics across Nebraska.
