Comcast Business today announced that Utah Cancer Specialists (UCS), Utah’s largest community-based oncology practice, is using Comcast Ethernet and Business Internet services to connect its 12 locations, supporting the group’s primary physicians and mid-level practitioners. The network solution from Comcast Business allows UCS to quickly transfer large, high-resolution radiology files crucial for patient care and diagnosis, electronic medical records, faxes and billing information between locations as well as to and from their centralized data center.
Utah Cancer Specialists has been providing care for patients suffering from cancer for over 15 years, offering diverse expertise in medical oncology, radiation oncology and hematology. The practice is committed to treating patients’ physical conditions, while also providing support for their emotional and spiritual needs. The organization currently has 12 locations along the Wasatch Front including a data center and administrative office, nine clinics and two large cancer centers. Each day, 250-300 patients visit UCS’s clinics for treatment, many of them coming in multiple times per week.
Prior to working with Comcast Business, UCS depended on dedicated T1 lines from another provider, but found the cost and 1.5 Mbps of bandwidth to be limiting as their needs expanded. By switching to Comcast’s Business Ethernet and Internet services, the organization increased bandwidth and achieved significant cost-savings. With patients able to get treatment at different locations, Comcast’s wide area network solution allows UCS to quickly transfer high-resolution radiology files and patient records between locations so physicians always have access to a patient’s up-to-date diagnosis and treatment information. In addition, the high-bandwidth connection to the UCS data center allows backup and disaster recovery processes to be carried out when needed instead of scheduled for off hours due to the limited bandwidth. The faster Internet access also allows UCS to provide Wi-Fi access for patients and family while they are in the waiting room.
“Our network not only supports our physicians and the treatment they provide directly to patients, but also the behind-the-scenes work necessary to ensure continuous business operations,” said Ben Harkness, information technology director for Utah Cancer Specialists. “And we not only reduced our monthly costs, but the significant increase in bandwidth also eliminated the daily IT headaches of trying to manage around the limited speeds of our legacy T1 connections so we can focus on new technology initiatives to improve the quality of care and provide the best experience possible for our patients.”
UCS currently uses a Comcast Ethernet Network Service to connect multiple locations, including a 200 Mbps connection at their administrative office, 70 Mbps connections at each of their cancer centers and 15 Mbps connections at each clinic. UCS also has a Comcast Business Internet line at their administrative office for Internet access.
“We’ve worked with a number of healthcare organizations like UCS where the network is supporting their overall digital healthcare initiatives and mission to improve patient care by streamlining operations, improving reliability and providing access to rapidly-evolving technologies that can aid in treatment,” said Paul Merritt, director, Comcast Business. “Our Ethernet services are ideal for supporting the diverse ecosystem of healthcare locations – from hospitals and clinics to offices, data centers and even a physician’s home – so there is consistent, reliable access to technology to improve patient care while providing the flexibility and scalability to grow with the organization as needs change.”
About Utah Cancer Specialists
Utah Cancer Specialists is Utah’s largest community-based oncology practice, offering diverse expertise in oncology and hematology. UCS is committed to helping patients deal with both physical and emotional stress caused by their condition as well as to provide the resources necessary to help each patient and those who care for them to understand their diagnosis and make informed decisions about treatment options. Utah Cancer Specialists is located at twelve locations along the Wasatch Front.
About Comcast Business
Comcast Business, a unit of Comcast Cable, provides advanced communication solutions to help organizations of all sizes meet their business objectives. Through a modern, advanced network that is backed by 24/7 technical support, Comcast delivers Business Internet, TV and Voice services for cost-effective, simplified communications management.
The Comcast Business Ethernet suite offers high-performance point-to-point and multi-point Ethernet services with the capacity to deliver cloud computing, software-as-a-service, business continuity/disaster recovery and other bandwidth-intensive applications. Comcast Ethernet services are significantly faster than standard T1 lines and other legacy technologies, providing scalable bandwidth from 1 Mbps up to 10 Gigabits-per-second (Gbps) in more than 20 major US markets.
