The Colorado Telehealth Network (CTN) was formed in 2008 as a result of two Federal Communications Commission (FCC) grant awards totaling $9.5M ($4.6M to the Colorado Hospital Association [CHA], and $5.1M to the Colorado Behavioral Health Council [CBHC]). In all, the FCC awarded $417 million to help build 69 statewide or regional broadband telehealth networks across 42 states. The goal in making these awards was to improve patient care and safety by providing the core network infrastructure that would: 1) enable rural health care organizations to increase their use of health information technology such as Electronic Medical Records and; 2) encourage affiliated, but separate, health care organizations to collaborate and integrate in ways not possible without a high capacity, connected network.  CTN is the result of CHA and CBHC working together to deploy a single, unified network using their two awards.

According to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin (2007-2009),

“In order to receive the benefits of
telemedicine, electronic health care records and other health care benefits, health providers must have access to underlying broadband infrastructure. Without this underlying infrastructure, efforts to implement these advances in health care cannot succeed.”

As of January 2012, CTN met its goal of connecting over 200 hospitals, clinics and behavioral health care centers. The CTN network spans all of Colorado, connecting health care organizations in all 64 counties in Colorado. No other state has used their funds to create such a farreaching, all-inclusive network.

Members of CTN receive two primary benefits by participating and sustaining this network:

• For rural members, CTN provides low cost, high capacity bandwidth that enhances all aspects of their communications systems including use of electronic medical records (EMRs), televideo, telephone services using the Internet (VoIP), transmission of high-resolution images in trauma situations, and more. Broadband costs are three or more times higher in rural markets due to low demand and a lag in bringing less expensive, newer technology. Without CTN, many organizations in rural Colorado would not be able to afford the broadband necessary to implement health information technology (HIT).
• For all members, CTN provides a high capacity connection into more than 200 healthcare sites for the cost of a single connection. For many, this means the potential for increased referrals from, and consults to, organizations not currently in their referral network.

For more information or to contact CTN, please reach out to our Program Director, Debby Farreau.