The Northwest Medical Center in Albany is among eleven rural Missouri hospitals set to receive grants from the state to upgrade their broadband Internet access. Governor Jay Nixon on Wednesday announced $262 thousand in grants from the MoBroadbandNow initiative.

Northwest Medical Center will use its grant of up to $25 thousand to increase broadband Internet access to and from its four rural health clinics. The hospital will provide $5,000 in matching funds for the project.

Eleven rural hospitals throughout Missouri will soon be able to provide improved telemedicine care for their patients, thanks to the grants. The Governor made the announcement in Dexter at Missouri Southern Healthcare, one of the recipients of a Rural Hospital Broadband Connection grant, where he was joined by local healthcare leaders and by officials from the MoBroadbandNow program.

“One of the very real benefits of improved broadband service in rural Missouri is in telemedicine – connecting Missourians and their physicians with specialists many miles away who can look at high-resolution images and receive other vital information on a real-time basis to help doctors treat those patients,” Gov. Nixon said. “Expanded broadband accessibility between healthcare providers will mean access to quicker and more specialized care that is often life-saving for patients.”

In addition to the hospitals in Albany and Dexter, Gov. Nixon also announced nine other grants for rural health facilities across Missouri.