Rural Healthcare's Broadband Gap Widens

[Commentary] Healthcare institutions in non-metro counties have significantly slower broadband than metropolitan institutions do, a new study shows. And the gap is getting bigger. Rural hospitals fare better than stand-alone facilities like clinics, pharmacies, or health departments. The study suggests that healthcare facilities in non-metropolitan counties connect with relatively slow speeds when compared to their metro counterparts. The finding comes at a time when healthcare field has changed dramatically, with technologies such as Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) becoming commonplace. These technologies require Internet connections – and, as more and more data is being transferred, those connections need to be fast.

The study takes advantage of the fact that the National Broadband Map gathered data on connectivity speeds for a variety of “Community Anchor Institutions” – including health care facilities – during its run from 2010 to 2014. Each state surveyed their own facilities, and the resulting database included over 35,000 healthcare entities in 2010 and increased to over 62,000 in 2014. The location of each facility was also recorded, allowing for analysis of whether the connection speeds varied across metro / non-metro designations. The results show a significant difference in the speeds at which healthcare facilities connect between metro and non-metro areas. In 2010, 14% of all healthcare facilities in metropolitan areas had the fastest category of connections (at least 50 Megabits per second (MBPS)). Comparatively, only about 5% of healthcare facilities in non-metro counties had connections of that speed. Non-metro facilities also had higher rates of the lowest category of speeds (< 3 MBPS), with 38% (vs. 33% in metro areas).

[Brian Whitacre is associate professor and extension economist at Oklahoma State University. The study is forthcoming in the Journal of Rural Health and is entitled “What Can the National Broadband Map Tell Us About the Healthcare Connectivity Gap?]