The Wired Road Makes Twin County Regional Healthcare a Rural Communications Leader

Patient Benefits:  Greater Access to Specialists, Secure Medical Records and Faster Treatment

Galax Virginia, -- A new advanced technology communications project is thrusting Twin County Regional Healthcare (TCRH) to the forefront in moving secure patient information within the TCRH system and around the world.

Southwest Virginia’s Carroll and Grayson counties and Galax city have combined to create The Wired Road.  This high-speed telecommunications system uses fiber-optic lines and wireless transmissions to channel information in huge volumes akin to an aqueduct bringing water to thousands of city residents rather than garden-hose-like flows cable-internet users have or the trickle dial-up telephone connections provide.

“The driving force for TCRH to be on The Wired Road is to be able to provide the best possible patient care,” said Jack Roberts, TCRH’s Director of Information Systems.  “It’s critical we have the ability to share secure patient information quickly so doctors and staff are well-informed for important patient care decisions.”

With The Wired Road, it doesn’t matter that TCRH is in rural Southwestern Virginia.  Now the facility has the opportunity to offer patients many of the same services as major medical centers, Roberts noted.

“Because of The Wired Road, Twin County Regional Healthcare is well ahead of most other rural Virginia hospitals – in fact well ahead of most rural hospitals in the United States,” he said.  Danville, Virginia and a project on Virginia’s coast are among the handful of similar United States ventures as is an effort in The Netherlands.

A year ago, when TCRH began tying clinics near the 141-bed hospital together with fiber-optic lines, the medical facility made sure it could also tap into The Wired Road.  Roberts said TCRH now has four of its remote offices on The Wired Road with plans to extend fiber-optic service to the remaining remote offices over the next few months.

Recent improvements now allow doctors to send electronic patient records and exams, including radiological images, from TCRH to their offices and major medical centers much faster than before. 

Dealing with major medical centers electronically gives TCRH patients access to specialists, often meaning quicker results.

“We’re able to process cases much faster using this technology,” said TCRH Pathologist Dr. James Britton, Medical Director of Laboratories.  “That means better service for doctors and patients.  Another benefit is shorter patient stays.”

Further, such “broadband” communication requires “digital” patient records, a standard many federal health-care leaders, including President Barak Obama, support as a way to improve health-care quality and cut costs.  The system also satisfies strict federal patient-privacy requirements.

“The Wired Road’s ability to move test results quickly for earlier diagnosis is among the biggest efficiency improvements I’ve seen in my 18 years at TCRH,” said Dr. Britton.  His experience supports United States government studies showing each dollar invested in “broadband” provides a ten-fold return.

Roberts says The Wired Road’s capacity, all of which funnels through Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) about the size of a paperback novel, will eventually allow instant emergency medical-record sharing and other “telemedicine” activities worldwide. 

Other possibilities include robotic surgery, where The Wired Road carries the data allowing a skilled surgeon miles away to operate on a patient using a TCRH-based robot.  “But that is future forward planning,” Roberts said.

The three Twin County governments, with Virginia’s Department of Housing and Community Development support, undertook The Wired Road, whose start-up cost is an estimated $26 million, to stimulate regional economic development and provide residential services, such as telephone, television and internet access, to the remote area.

“We’re in our early stages, but preliminary signs are encouraging,” said Wired Road Marketing Manager Debbie Bolen.  “Our goal is to allow local businesses to compete nationally and internationally and provide residential services – both adding to the region’s vitality.”

The design calls for The Wired Road to lay fiber-optic cable in the region’s more populated areas – Galax, Hillsville and Independence – steadily expanding fiber-optic service to less populated areas. 

“We will have major announcements as service becomes available in different Twin County areas,” said Bolen, acknowledging interest is keen.

During the expansion, The Wired Road will beam wireless service from more than a dozen strategically placed mountain-top towers to rural customers, the most remote of which will retain access to wireless service once the network is finished. 

Wireless transmissions now serve the Carroll County school system, The Wired Road’s first participant, beginning in September 2007, the month after network construction started.

“The local governments have no interest in providing Wired Road services directly to users – commercial, public or residential,” Bolen said.  Instead, as is the case with TCRH and the Carroll County schools, The Wired Road will lease portions of the system’s pipeline to commercial providers, who will sell their services to customers directly.

The Wired Road is soliciting telephone and cable companies to package their wares.  “These providers would offer internet, telephone, TV – or an entire bundle – to customers and set rates,” Bolen explained.  “Our plan calls for these providers to compete for customers, thus keeping variety and service up and costs down.”

She likened the approach to governments building highways, for which users pay gas taxes and tolls.  Users like trucking companies haul the freight for customers, who in turn pay the truckers – just as service providers would pay The Wired Road.

The authority would use its income to maintain and expand the system and pay off debt, returning any excess money to the three local governments.