The long-term objective of this project is to provide Internet access to the VNA Services and Foundation, Western Pennsylvania. The activities of this organization is primarily to provide professional nursing and therapy services to patients in their homes in a nine-county wide area of Western Pennsylvania, primarily in rural areas. The importance of the Internet connection to the Visiting Nurses Association is that the home health nurses are alone when delivering the care to patients. Access to the Internet through their computers in the field would greatly enhance that care, because of the ease of access to extensive medically related databases and Internet-based E-mail. The technical proposal is that the Visiting Nurses Association establish a T1 connection to a local Internet Service Provider through their local telephone company. The hardware that handle all of the communications includes a router with integrated CSU/DSU, firewall software, E-mail SMTP server and a modem bank for remote access. The connection will be available through the local and wide area networks through the integrated IPX/IP gateway. All of the Visiting Nurses Association field nurses already have laptops with modems, and all of the clinical administration have desktop computers.
