Prepare your network to meet growing telehealth demands

Improve the patient experience by improving your network.

Telemedicine is proving its ability to enhance healthcare across key metrics — everything from patient satisfaction to cost savings to outcomes. In fact, a recent study conducted by Public Opinion Strategies found that 54% of Americans have now had a telehealth visit with 89% of those patients stating they were satisfied with their most recent telehealth visit.¹

For healthcare providers, telehealth services require that providers ensure they have the network capacity and performance to ensure high-speed, reliable and low-latency telecommunications services to support the increasing demand.
 

Bandwidth requirements

Modern healthcare organizations require internet bandwidth to support an array of services, such as clinic management functions, email, web browsing, the simultaneous use of electronic health record (EHR) and high-quality video consultations, real-time image transfer, remote monitoring and HD video consultations. To support these services, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recommends the following minimum bandwidth speeds for different sized healthcare organizations:²

However, it’s important to note that these minimums can support only a few simultaneous connections and don’t include the full breadth of bandwidth-intensive applications used throughout other parts of healthcare.

Factors to consider
Estimating your organization’s bandwidth requirements can be complex. You should consider the following factors when making your assessment:

• Number of users.
• User locations.
• Real-time transactions

Why choose Spectrum Enterprise^® as your preferred healthcare IT provider

Dedicated Fiber Internet
Increase the reliability and performance of your network with a dedicated fiber connection. Optimal for data-intensive, cloud-based applications like telehealth solutions, our Dedicated Fiber Internet service gives you continuous and symmetrical connectivity, delivering an ultra-reliable and highly scalable, high-speed internet service.

Secure and reliable WAN services
Telehealth technologies like telediagnosis and telecollaboration require consistent and reliable connectivity to enable seamless collaboration across locations. For private connectivity to one or multiple locations, Spectrum Enterprise Ethernet Services delivers real-time, low-latency, secure and cost-effective connectivity that can quickly adapt to your evolving bandwidth needs. Alternatively, our Managed Practice Package offers security, routing, SD-WAN, WiFi, switching, smart cameras and environmental sensors in a modular, all-in-one solution. You achieve flexibility and scalability with connectivity, equipment and network management from a single partner.

Private connections to the cloud
Spectrum Enterprise offers the ability to move data dependably and securely with reliable cloud access. Combined with our Ethernet Services, our Cloud Connect service enables integration of public clouds with your private WAN to reduce security risks and ensure fast and consistent high performance in the cloud.

Seamless and cost-effective voice and collaboration solutions
Communication between staff, providers, departments and patients is critical for efficient operations, the delivery of quality care and positive patient outcomes. From premises-based phone systems to cloud-based voice and collaboration solutions, Spectrum Enterprise offers a broad array of features and service options, including PRI and SIP Trunking and unified communications, to connect staff, providers, patients and visitors simply, seamlessly and cost-effectively.

Eliminate the day-to-day network administration
Managed network services from Spectrum Enterprise (including Managed WiFi, Managed Router Service and managed cloud security, as well as Managed Network Edge, powered by Cisco Meraki, give healthcare IT leaders the ability to keep their network up to date and running smoothly and securely without day-to-day network administration. Get access to modern equipment and the latest software and upgrades. Our, easy-to-use service portals provide insight into network activities to enable you to make better informed decisions about future IT investments.

Funding to support of telehealth
The FCC’s Rural Health Care (RHC) Program, administered by the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC), provides funding to eligible healthcare providers serving
rural and underserved communities to obtain discounted prices for broadband networks. Our team of dedicated RHC Program specialists can help you navigate the program, and to establish networks that support telehealth capabilities that can help expand and improve the quality of healthcare for rural and underserved communities.

We can work with your organization to apply for funding in connection with these and other government programs to support the expansion of your broadband services.

Learn more about the Spectrum Enterprise solutions that enable you to advance your digital health initiatives.

^1. “2024 National Telehealth Survey,” Public Opinion Strategies, March 4, 2024.
^2. “The Office of the National Coordinator of Health IT (ONC),” Alliance for Connected Care, Nov. 28, 2023.