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Press Release -- June 16th, 2014
Source: ion
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Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare Chooses ION to Meet Growing Broadband Needs

June 16, 2014 (Albany, N.Y.) – Thanks to a new service partnership with Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare (FSLH), ION Communications, an Albany-based statewide telecommunications provider, is helping to significantly improve the delivery of critical healthcare services in upstate New York.

ION and FSLH recently announced a major service-related partnership, which brings ION’s state-of-the-art high-speed broadband to this multi-location healthcare network.  FSLH delivers a network of healthcare services through several affiliated facilities located throughout upper New York State.  Additionally, the organization’s physician’s medical group comprises eight primary care offices in New York’s Oneida and Herkimer counties.

Improved broadband to help FSLH continue to deliver quality services was a top priority, noted Kerry Smith, director of operations, information technology, Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare of the Mohawk Valley Health System.

“Technology and a high-capacity, low-latency broadband connection are critical to meet our growing healthcare needs,” Smith noted. “We also appreciate flexibility and having multiple options from our services providers.”

Smith added that the ION system “allows our healthcare organizations to provide world-class services to our employees, medical staffs, and patients.” A robust broadband connection enables several important features of healthcare needs, such as electronic medical records and remote access to high-quality specialty medical consultation, according to Smith.

“Knowing the hospital’s need for a reliable and secure connection, we are very pleased that Faxton St. Luke’s chose ION for its scalable fiber broadband,” said Joseph Calzone, ION’s president. “It was exactly this type of critical need that we had in mind when we sought federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to expand the ION network by 1,400 fiber miles through multiple New York state rural communities.”

According to Calzone, the ION/FSLH service arrangement results from a recent, nearly $50 million investment to expand ION’s broadband service to unserved and underserved areas in more than 70 rural communities in upstate New York. The fiber build-out was made possible, in large part, thanks to a $39.7 million grant from the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

 

About ION

ION is an Albany, New York-based, statewide fiber network connecting more than 100 upstate New York communities and their surrounding areas with its 3000+ mile redundant and diversely routed network.  ION currently provides services to the four major cellular providers, national and regional telecommunications providers, hospitals and healthcare organizations, colleges and universities, governmental entities and large-to-medium businesses across its robust fiber network. ION’s network seamlessly connects to the fiber network of its parent company, Bellows Falls, Vermont-based Sovernet Communications. Together, the two companies operate a 4,500+ fiber network throughout New York and New England.

About Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare

Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare, a not-for-profit healthcare organization, includes St. Luke’s Home, Senior Network Health, Mohawk Valley Home Care and Visiting Nurse Association of Utica and Oneida County. Its Adirondack Community Physicians medical group, located throughout Oneida and Herkimer Counties, offers eight primary care offices that specialize in general surgery, orthopedic surgery and neurosurgery. Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare recently affiliated with St. Elizabeth Medical Center under the Mohawk Valley Health System. The two healthcare organizations are working together to provide accessible, quality healthcare for the community.

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