FHN and SwedishAmerican Health System are working together to share technical capabilities through TriRivers Health Partners, a jointly owned health IT organization created by both organizations in 2004 dedicated to fostering improvement and enhancements in the use of health information technology.

In 2008, TriRivers Health Partners established TriLightNET TeleHealth Communications, a wholly owned fiber optic telecommunications company.

Through TriLightNET, FHN and SwedishAmerican are able to:

• Back up each others’ data to assist in disaster recovery
• Transfer medical images and information (TeleHealth services), and
• Consolidate technology and technical staff to support both entities and save money

The best – most economical, most reliable and fastest – way to move this amount of information quickly for purposes of making systems highly available is through fiber optic cable.

TriLightNET
SwedishAmerican and FHN are linked by about 35 miles of underground fiber optic cable. When TriRivers Health Partners began researching how to make this connection work efficiently, it became obvious that the best way would be to invest in the network and own it.

TriLightNET is owned by TriRivers Health Partners. Our major assets are:

• Rockford – Dubuque fiber – 111 miles of fiber optic cable running from Machesney Park to Dubuque, Iowa
• Rockford fiber ring – 27 miles from the SwedishAmerican technology hub at the Wight Centre in Rockford through Loves Park and Machesney Park
• Freeport fiber extension – 5 miles of cable extending from the Rockford – Dubuque connection into Freeport, reaching FHN Memorial Hospital and FHN Family Healthcare Center – Burchard Hills and eventually all other Freeport FHN locations