The Palmetto State Providers Network

an RHC Pilot Program Network

W. Roger Poston, II, Ed.D.Associate Program Coordinator

Palmetto State Providers Network (PSPN)

• A statewide broadband network reaching all 46 counties in South Carolina

• Created under an FCC Rural Health Care Pilot Program Grant

• Total funding approximately $9,500,000

• Designed and dedicated to support healthcare

2

PSPN Goals and Objectives

• Goal: “Improving the health and well being of the citizens of South Carolina”

• Objective: Connect large tertiary centers, academic medical centers, regional hospitals, rural hospitals, community health centers, and rural office-based practices over a broadband network for the delivery of health care throughout South Carolina.

• Objective: Support telemedicine, telehealth and Health Information Exchange state-wide 3

PSPN Sites

• 57 Hospitals• 5 AHEC Centers• 89 Federally Qualified Health Centers• Installations in planning or proposed:

– SC Department of Health and Environmental Control– SC Department of Mental Health– SC Division of Prisons– SC Department of Health and Human Services– SC Department of Disability Services– SC School Based Clinics

PSPN – Network Uses

• Telemedicine• Telehealth• Health information Exchange• Secure data and image transfer for PHI• Meaningful Use requirements for

hospitals• AHEC Resident Training and CME

6

Meaningful Use: Core Objectives

Supports at least 5 of 14 objectives:10. Report hospital clinical quality measures to CMS or

States11. Provide patients with an electronic copy of their

health information, upon request12. Provide patients with an electronic copy of their

discharge instructions at time of discharge, upon request

13. Capability to exchange key clinical information among providers of care and patient-authorized entities electronically

14. Protect electronic health information

Meaningful Use Public Health Objectives

Supports at least 3 of 10 objectives:• Capability to provide electronic data

to immunization registries/systems• Capability to provide electronic

submission of reportable lab results to public health agencies

• Capability to provide electronic syndromic surveillance data to public health agencies

Private Broadband

• Supports at least two concurrent telemedicine or telehealth sessions or two full motion high definition videoconferences

• May be used to transmit PHI data files through VPN or VPLS

• PSPN video bridge– 40 Concurrent HD full-motion

videoconferences– 160 Desktop HD full-motion

videoconferences– Firewall traversal capabilities– Modulates all videoconferencing

10

Commodity Internet Bandwidth

• Symmetrical Bandwidth uploads and downloads data at the same speed.

• Supports web-based telemedicine • Supports patient data transfer including

images• Supports Health Information Exchange

requirements• Supports access to the National Health

Information Network (NHIN)

11

Security

• Ability to build Virtual Private Network connections

• Ability to build Virtual Private LANs• HIPAA Compliant• Business Associates Agreement• Commodity Internet contained in SC• Layer 3 Capabilities

PSPN

1. Private Ethernet2. Symmetrical Commodity Internet3. Internet 24. NHIN

13

Requirements to Participate

• Health Care entity-single requirement• Rural Health Care eligible entities – FCC subsidy for Internet and Broadband

(MRC)– FCC subsidy for Local Connections (MRC)– FCC funded connectivity to network

(NRC)• Rural Health Care non-eligible entities– Pay ‘Fair Share’ installation and monthly

costs

QUESTONS?