Hospitals should provide health care — not build telecom networks

An article in the Daily Inter Lake ("Fiber-optic line makes health links") sings the praises of a new fiber-optic telecommunications network being built by the Kalispell-based Health Information Exchange of Montana, a consortium of Northwest Montana health-care providers.

Sounds great, right? Wrong. The Health Information Exchange is a waste of our money. It substantially duplicates telecommunications network infrastructure already in place — infrastructure built for all of us, not just health-care providers. Such duplication discourages further investment in broadband facilities by private telecom providers. And it puts doctors in the business of telecommunications network operations — a far cry from their core mission of providing health care.

By Geoff Feiss

Full Story: http://www.dailyinterlake.com/opinion/article_3ee59dee-feea-11e1-b2d2-0019bb2963f4.html