Healthcare - Lower Cost,
More Functionality
Next Generation Thinking - Extending the Reach and Scope of Healthcare Services in British Columbia
GIG-E network PACS a punch for Fraser Health Authority
Canada's health authorities face a major challenge. They have to deliver unlimited services, but they have limited resources with which to do it. As a result, they welcome any solution that can help them conserve resources, deliver better service and save time and money.
Fraser Health Authority
British Columbia's Fraser Health Authority (FHA) is one of the largest regional health authorities in Canada. It serves more than 1.5 million Canadians, employs over 20,000 people and administers 13 different sites spread over 300 miles.
To improve the care it provides, FHA began investigating a Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS). PACS would enable FHA to store, retrieve, distribute, display and share medical images and information in digital form - and that, in turn, would enable FHA to maximize its use of medical specialists. For example, instead of sending a patient to a radiologist at another site - or admitting the patient to a ward while his or her chart and medical images are being sent instead - PACS would enable medical specialists to consult from anywhere, in real or close to real time.
The potential was there. But to make it a reality, FHA needed to connect its different sites to one another. And to make that happen, they required a private, fast and scalable Wide Area Network.
the need for speed
Working together, FHA and TELUS quickly realized that no ordinary network could handle the bandwidth demands of PACS. Radiology scans are often larger than 20 MB each. Which is why TELUS recommended implementing the first Gigabyte-Ethernet (GIG-E) network in Western Canada - and perhaps in all of North America.
In addition to speeds of up to 1 Gigahertz per second, the new E-Health Network is also completely scalable. What's more, FHA has a Quality of Service (QoS) option that enables them to reserve bandwidth for high priority data that has to be contiguous. For example, data from a magnetic resonance image (MRI) will be sent as one complete file, rather than being broken into packets and reassembled at its destination.
"Our wide area network had to be flexible, scalable and secure enough to meet our needs. And it had to be compatible with the networks being developed by other health authorities within BC. TELUS' solution is a major step in helping us to span the "digital divide" in BC."
- Neil Currie, CIO, FHA
[The "digital divide" is a primary focus of the BC provincial government in the area of health care. It describes the differences in digital capture, storage, retrieval and distribution capabilities between large urban areas and the remote regions of the province.]
benefits for all
Together, PACS and the E-Health Network enable the entire Fraser Health Authority to function as if it were a single hospital, even though its 13 sites are geographically dispersed. And that means significant benefits to FHA, its patients and employees.
- Patients avoid long waiting times
- Specialists can quickly read images and make diagnoses, even when they are hundreds of miles away
- Projected savings on ambulance costs and overnight stays are estimated at $10 - $50 million
- FHA will save approximately $2 million in film costs
- Film cannot get lost or misplaced in transit
- Images have enhanced viewing options for radiologist analysis
The majority of BC's health regions have now upgraded their networks to GIG-E strength with TELUS. The regions are now investing in a Private Network Gateway that will allow them to connect to the E-Health Network, enabling them to leverage the best practices of each different organization. A shared delivery platform will lower costs through improved and simplified logistics. It will also improve operational efficiency and allow the Province's health authorities to create and share centres of excellence. In fact, some of this is already happening. A Video Conferencing Bridge now delivers Tele-Health across B.C., eliminating the need for each health authority to implement its own version.
"Without the network infrastructure that we've developed with TELUS, none of what we've done, and none of what we plan to do with information management in health in BC, would be possible."
- Neil Currie, CIO, FHA
