“As the sole hospital in our community, Ellett Memorial continually seeks innovative and creative ways to provide the highest level of quality care and services to our patients,” Ellett Memorial CEO Ray Magers said.
Ellett Memorial was experiencing a common issue faced by many rural hospitals across the country: the expense of bandwidth necessary for efficient transmission of radiology images and data.
“As a key component of primary care, radiology departments depend on fast and reliable transmission of large medical data and imaging files,” said John Stomp, director of information services at Ellett Memorial. “The additional bandwidth and circuit to our network infrastructure will ensure faster delivery of radiology department imagery without disrupting access speeds to our other critical hospital information systems, such as email and electronic health records (EHR).”
Magers said the upgrade will increase operational efficiency, decrease costs and ultimately allow doctors and nurses to spend less time in front of a computer screen and more time delivering quality care to patients. “Our top priority is delivering the best health care to our patients,” Magers said. “Whenever we can increase patient service access and save money, it’s a win-win for the hospital and community.”
With partnership between Rural Health Telecom and Stomp, USF funding will be secured from November 2014 through October 2017 for the additional 3Mbps circuit upgrade.
The Federal Communications Commission’s USF specifically allocates funds to rural area hospitals and clinics under the Rural Healthcare Program. Eligible rural health care providers can receive government funding that subsidizes the difference between urban connectivity costs and rural costs, which are often higher due to the remoteness of clinic locations.
Rural Health Telecom CEO Tim Koxlien said the investment will position Ellett Memorial to take full advantage of emerging healthcare technologies. “We have worked closely with Ellett Memorial for over five years to provide customized telecommunications tools and technology,” Koxlien said. “Increasing broadband speeds will not only alleviate present challenges but provide Ellett Memorial with the infrastructure to incorporate more advanced telehealth and telemedicine services in the future.”
About Ellett Memorial Hospital
Ellet Memorial Hospital is a not-for-profit 12-bed critical access hospital providing primary care and emergency health services to residents of Appleton City, Missouri and surrounding areas. For more information, please visit www.ellettmemorial.com.
