About HealthNet connect

Iowa Health System is committed to ensuring that advanced medical technology is available to patients, physicians and providers.

For this reason, Iowa Health System has designed HealthNet connect, a health-care network designed exclusively by health-care professionals, for health-care professionals.

HealthNet connect is a fiber optic network capable of transforming health care in Iowa, Illinois and throughout the Midwest by enabling health-care providers to communicate medical information instantaneously across the state. The 3,200-mile fiber optic network already in place provides services to Iowa Health System's 11 largest hospitals and some network rural hospitals.

HealthNet connect uses the same technology and architecture as Iowa Health System's separate internal fiber optic network. The Iowa Health System network operates at a 99.999 percent reliability rate and processes more than 8 million transactions per day. The network runs throughout Iowa and spans four states, with direct fiber connections to major metropolitan cities such as Chicago and Denver.

Iowa Health System is planning connectivity options for hospitals and clinics throughout the state, even in remote rural areas, by connecting HealthNet connect's fiber optic network to rural hospitals and clinics through "last mile" connections. 

Plans call for HealthNet connect to provide the common backbone for medical records sharing, continuity of care documentation and inter-facility data transfers required by state law by 2010.  Additional plans call for HealthNet connect to provide direct access to national research organizations for education, research and participation in clinical trials.  In the near future, additional tele-health and tele-medicine applications will be possible.  HealthNet connect will eventually be accessible to a wide health-care user base, including private clinics, physicians, pharmacies, labs, payers and other entities in the health-care delivery cycle.

For vendors who seek to submit an RFP for rendering "last mile" connection from HealthNet connect to rural hospitals or clinics, please click on the following link:  http://www.usac.org/rhc-pilot-program/tools/search-postings-2008.aspx