16 Rural, Nonprofit, Medically Underserved Hospitals in Ohio to Get Telemedicine and High-speed Internet

Fiber Optic Network Made Possible with $8 Million in New Markets Tax Credits Financing

 “This project benefits Ohio by creating jobs and bringing telemedicine to rural hospitals. In terms of direct economic impact, the project will generate 300 long-term health provider jobs in a region with an unemployment rate of 29.3 percent and a poverty rate of 41.8 percent.”
- Charles Berry, Chief Operating Officer of OneCommunity.

Overcoming complexity and remoteness, NCB Capital Impact worked with several public and private partners to provide $8 million in financing for the development of a fiber optic network infrastructure in Rural Ohio that will impact 7 million people. The financing was made possible thanks to New Market Tax Credits, Federal funding and private investment.

OneCommunity, an Ohio-based nonprofit organization, will use the funds to develop and construct a network called “HealthNet” throughout portions of northeastern Ohio. Once the HealthNet project is complete, 16 rural, nonprofit, medically underserved area hospitals will be connected and enabled to use telemedicine and high-speed internet services.

HealthNet spans 22 counties and will enable these hospitals to connect with medical and research facilities better staffed and better equipped across the State of Ohio and the nation. HealthNet aims to connect smaller rural clinics and critical care facilities as well as other community anchor institutions across the 22-county footprint.

“This project benefits Ohio by creating jobs and bringing telemedicine to rural hospitals," said Charles Berry, Chief Operating Officer of OneCommunity.  “In terms of direct economic impact, the project will generate 300 long-term health provider jobs in a region with an unemployment rate of 29.3 percent and a poverty rate of 41.8 percent.” added Berry.  

The project will also create more than 150 jobs through construction and development of the infrastructure.  It will touch the lives of more than seven million people who will be helped by the technological innovations of that electronic medical services will provide.  

“The need for high speed internet access has become a necessity for healthcare today. This project will provide the greatly needed access to rural hospitals in medically underserved communities in Ohio,” commented Terry Simonette, President & CEO of NCB Capital Impact. “We are committed to supporting mission-critical innovations like HealthNet that support underserved people and communities at every stage of life,” Simonette added.

HealthNet will serve 7 million people through community anchor institutions in health care, government, education, and social service.  In addition to Cuyahoga County and Akron, ten counties with medically underserved hospital facilities will benefit from the HealthNet project.