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Mammoth Hospital To Receive
$295,000 From FCC Universal Service Fund To Improve Health
Telecom Services
Mammoth Hospital
will receive $295,000 from the Federal Communications
Commission’s Rural Health Care fund, designed to provide
support for the telecommunications needs of rural health
care facilities, as a result of a contract approved last
month with Rural Health Telecom (RHT).
Mammoth Hospital's
Chief Executive Officer Gary Myers said, “We are excited
about the prospect of completing installation of the new
telecommunications system, which will benefit clients
throughout the widespread Southern Mono Healthcare District
of California. It will provide a wide variety of new
high-tech medical services to enhance patient care – which,
without this support, would have been prohibitively
expensive for a rural health care provider. Via this
contract, Mammoth Hospital will be able to improve the
expertise, effectiveness and efficiency of our medical
programs while saving money and time for both the hospital
and the public it serves.”
Rural Health
Telecom Principal Tim Koxlien said, "Mammoth Hospital is a
prime example of a rural health care provider with the
foresight to apply for and achieve Universal Service Fund
support in order to expand and enhance its medical service
capabilities. RHT worked directly with Mammoth Hospital to
design the high-speed, telecommunications plan needed to
qualify for the federal funds.”
Koxlien explained
that the resulting contract will provide the hospital with
an impressive, cutting-edge telecommunications network. It
features expanded, highly efficient and effective access to
expert medical advice and counsel via a "picture archival
communications system and bandwidth to strengthen the
hospital's administrative capacity, while cutting the cost
of long distance services.
Under its
contract, RHT provides Mammoth Hospital with high-speed
broadband telecommunications capability to operate the new
telecommunications system along with full service
connectivity to
its information service provider and its
medical branches in Bishop and Bridgeport, CA.
The federal
program, paid for through Universal Service Fund (USF) fees
on telecommunications services, was authorized by Congress
in 1996 to provide reduced rates to rural health care
providers for telecommunications and telehealth services.
USF is intended to
level telecom costs between rural and urban areas including
high-speed internet access in rural and under-served regions
of the country. Support is calculated for each health
care provider based on its location and the type of service
required and can result in sizable savings on existing
service or for upgrades and new installations.
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