Stokes says, the increased bandwidth and exceptional reliability of ChoiceLight "allows you to think outside the box. It opens up so many other doors to different applications that would not be possible without it. It’s almost without limitation," he says.

Allied Physicians of Michiana

When Troy Stokes joined Allied Physicians of Michiana as director of IT, he already was aware of the benefits of ChoiceLight. "I knew from previous experience that it would decrease our costs," he says.

Since 1998, Allied Physicians of Michiana has combined business management services of the area’s leading physician practices in the region, thus allowing specialists to concentrate on patient service. Affiliated offices represent a broad range of medical specialties, including: Allergy and asthma; Colon and rectal surgery; Cosmetic and reconstructive surgery; General and vascular surgery; Hearing services; Obstetrics and gynecology; Orthopedics and nerve surgery; Otorhinolaryngology; Pediatrics; and Urology.

With affiliated offices located in South Bend, Elkhart, Mishawaka, Plymouth and Rochester, the organization had been keeping its various remote locations connected using traditional technologies such as T−1 lines. That meant that personnel at each individual location were responsible for handling servers for housing files and preparing backup tapes − tasks that were time−consuming and costly.

In July 2009, Allied became a ChoiceLight subscriber, consolidating some of the servers at remote locations into the server infrastructure located in downtown South Bend. "That was the biggest lure of the Metronet [ChoiceLight]," Stokes says. "We’ve eliminated multiple connections − T−1s as well as Internet − and combined it all into one infrastructure. Since we have those files at main servers downtown, we’ve been able to free up valuable staff time, reduce tape cost, reduce backup times, and reduce our electrical costs."

ChoiceLight has helped the organization realize cost savings in other ways, as well. For example, Allied Physicians saves over $800 a month in Internet costs alone. "We also have a high−speed, 100Mbps connection via the Metronet [ChoiceLight] to Michiana Health Information Network," Stokes says. "What that allows us to do is exchange information for any Allied patient to and from the community repository at a higher speed which is essential to prove ’Meaningful Use’ of our EMR (Electronic Medical Records)."

"Meaningful use" refers to a series of criteria set forth by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Health care providers must be able to demonstrate that they meet those criteria in order to receive incentive payments, which help to offset some of the cost associated with the purchase and implementation of an electronic medical record system. Those criteria cover such issues as the generation, tracking, storing and transmitting of patient records. "Any physician trying to get reimbursed by the government will need the connectivity to make that happen," Stokes explains. "Metronet [ChoiceLight] offers that connectivity with the capability to handle the high volume of (data) traffic that flows."