Spanish Peaks Regional Health Center (SPRHC) is a rural healthcare provider servicing an area of 1578 square miles. In order to overcome obstacles of access to medical references, records, and services, SPRHC seeks to connect four rural physician clinics to the hospital computer mainframe. This will be accomplished by providing wireless Omni antennae, cables, hubs and network access codes at each of these four sites. The goal of this project is to allow these clinic sites, namely the physicians, to perform medical record updates, peer-to-peer interfacing and medical reference searches behind the secure network firewall in place at SPRHC. Sites connected to the mainframe will have protected, wireless access to the Internet, thereby providing confidential and effective communication options. The use of the Internet to overcome rural barriers of access is critical and will ensure that these healthcare providers are able to access up-to-date medical research, educational opportunities and reference materials in a manner equitable to those in more urban areas.
