This project will provide secure and reliable Internet connectivity for two public medical facilities on the United States territory of Guam: the only civilian hospital, Guam Memorial Hospital Authority (GMHA) and the long-term care Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF), located six miles away from GMHA. Internet access will also cover the future GMHA library that will open with a new librarian by the end of 2001. Guam is the western-most U.S. territory, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, with a population of 155,000. Because of Guam?s geographic isolation, and due to the high costs of telecommunications and transportation, access to information and expertise on Guam is often very limited or unreliable. All health care professionals, physicians, nurses as well as administrators are facing a constant challenge to retrieve pertinent health-related information such as medical updates, educational material for patients and staff, and up to-date regulatory information encompassing thousands of compliance standards. Oftentimes, off-island travel remains the only solution for training, which creates a temporary staff shortage and represents a significant financial burden for the hospital and the health care communities. Physicians frequently have to access the Internet from their homes to look up medical information to assist them with the management of their hospital patients, which results in lower quality of care and staff frustration. Most of these issues will be addressed with a reliable, secure, organization-wide dedicated Internet connection that will complement the local area network (LAN) infrastructure already present at GMHA and SNF. Through on-site e-mail access, physicians will be able to communicate with off-island colleagues more effectively and without enduring long distance charges. The Web will provide health-related and medical information that can be accessed in a convenient and timely manner by employees from most workstations within GMHA and SNF. The University of Guam?s Robert F. Kennedy library staff will provide training and continuous support on how to access such information and online resources, while the Information Services Department of GMHA will assure technical support for both facilities.
