DES MOINES, IOWA – Recently, Iowa Heath System announced the launch of HealthNet connect. HealthNet connect is a 3,200-mile fiber optic network that will transform the way patients receive health care and how medical information is shared among health-care providers by connecting hospitals, patient clinics and a wide variety of other health-care entities.

Grundy County Memorial Hospital (GCMH) Information Technology Manager, Nick Betts says, “HealthNet connect is a fiber network designed by IHS to be used for medical purposes. The network initially connects 28 hospitals with a high-speed 100 MB network connect. GCMH along with 27 additional hospitals are set to be up and running on HealthNet connect by early summer. When fully implemented, it will be one of the first systems of its kind in the nation to receive funding from the Federal Communications Commissions Rural Health Care Pilot Program.”

“We are extremely excited to bring the future of health care to those patients we serve with HealthNet connect,” said Bill Leaver, President and CEO of Iowa Health System. “The benefits of technological advances, such as tele-medicine and efficient records exchange are numerous. These new capabilities will directly increase the overall quality of care experienced by patients.”

HealthNet connect will provide a resource to share health information between participants in health care throughout Iowa and western Illinois, particularly in remote rural areas. HealthNet connect also is working to provide additional tele-health and tele-medicine applications.

The 3,200-mile fiber optic backbone already is in place, spanning four states with direct fiber optic connections to major metropolitan cities stretching from Denver to the west and Chicago to the east.

Betts also anticipates that, “GCMH has the potential of saving approximately $17,000 per year initially. There are numerous possibilities for this network and I don’t think we will truly be able to realize all of the savings and uses until it is all up and running. To put it in perspective, if we were to look at a 1.5Mbps T1 connection, the cost would be approximately $1000 per month. This connection is 66 times faster than a T1 connection.”