Mid Valley Hospital in Omak was one of the first organizations in Okanogan County to connect to the PUD fiber optic network. They have been using their connectivity to provide better health care ever since.
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| Mid Valley Hospital in Omak |
They use the fiber optic connection to connect the phone systems for their hospital in Omak, the Mid-Valley Medical Group in Omak, Caribou Trail Orthopedics in Brewster and Omak, the Okanogan/Douglas District Hospital in Brewster, and the Lake Chelan Community Hospitals in Chelan and Wenatchee.
And when they need radiology images to be read by outside radiologists after hours or when their staff radiologist is not immediately available, their broadband connection allows them to do so within minutes. Kelly Cariker, Manager of IS for Mid Valley Hospital, says "This is the big one that saves lives. This includes CT Scans, X-ray, MRI, Nuclear Medicine, Ultrasound, and soon Digital Mammography."
Each of the 600 to 700 exams that Mid Valley Hospital sends over their fiber connection each month can be up to 900 images (1 gigabyte of data). On trauma injuries, the speed of the diagnostic reads by outside radiologists equates to better patient care and lives saved. Mr. Cariker summed up what the PUD fiber optic connection means to the hospital and its patients by saying, "We rely on the PUD fiber on a daily basis as our primary method of patient care and communication. The speed of our data transfers rivals and often exceeds many urban medical facilities".
In recognition of Mid Valley Hospital's use of their broadband connection to improve health care service, they have been awarded numerous awards, including being named Health Care's Most Wired "Most Improved Hospital" in 2007 and Health Care's Most Wired "Most Wired- Small & Rural" for 2009, 2010 and 2011.
The staff at MVH is not resting on their past success; they are actively pursuing even more advanced applications like tele-medicine, tele-interpreting, and a telestroke/burn program for their emergency room.
You can read more about Mid Valley Hospital by visiting their website.