About Us

Case Studies

AMSANT - Aboriginal community clinics use satellite broadband to improve health outcomes in rural Australia

“Activ8me won the tender because it has real broadband experience in remote and regional areas.
As a not for profit, we were also looking for value for money and they could provide commercial bandwidth at consumer prices. Software and broadband has improved the storage of patient information and generally made life easier. Activ8me provides satellite broadband for 11 clinics in the network which in turn benefit approximately 10,000 people.”

Aboriginal & Medical Services Alliance of the Northern Territory (AMSANT)

Overview

Activ8me’s corporate division won a competitive tender to upgrade network infrastructure and supply broadband services to community health clinics across northern Australia. The clinics are part of the Aboriginal and Medical Services Alliance in the Northern Territory (AMSANT).

Activ8me’s remote and regional expertise and ability to problem solve enabled us to create a reliable and cost effective solution for the clinics. The Activ8me satellite service ensured a broadband connection in some clinics and back-up in others, allowing some to migrate to electronic patient records. The new satellite service is utilised across 11 health service providers and approximately 10,000 people benefit from the service.

The customer’s company profile

AMSANT is the peak body for Aboriginal health in the Northern Territory and advocates community controlled health care. This means that local people are encouraged to take an active role in managing their primary health. AMSANT seeks to offer resources and support for members to run viable clinics and constantly improve the delivery of primary health care to Indigenous people.

AMSANT is a not-for-profit organisation funded by the federal government, NT State Government and various charities such as the Fred Hollows Institute.

It was established in 1994 and employs 25 people. The number of staff fluctuates on a project by project basis.

The Challenge

The health sector in Australia is one of the most sophisticated in the world. To provide this level of care, health practitioners require a high level of technology to source peer support and share vital information about patient care and experiences. It is also vital for national administrative systems such as Medicare.

Most AMSANT clinics are located in remote areas and are faced with significant challenges in sourcing reliable broadband because it is either unavailable or very expensive. To exacerbate the issue of poor service, the clinics are also faced with extreme weather conditions which cause major disruptions and system failures.

So the challenges for Activ8me were twofold:

• To ensure the clinics access a reliable 24 hour broadband service that could withstand harsh environmental conditions.
• Provide a robust system that could support a wide area network and handle the Patient Information Recall Systems (PIRS) that the clinics are using.

The Solution

We recommended wholesale changes to the way the clinics approach their service. Instead of having them self manage their systems, we recommended migration to full service agreements with Activ8me. This ensures that we understand trends in outage and highlights usage needs so we can deliver what AMSANT requires. This system also frees up the clinics to concentrate on delivering health services.

The installation of a new network infrastructure, 39 satellite dishes and associated support services across the country have brought significant improvements to the clinics. These include:

• Improved reporting and maintenance processes.
• Improved access to broadband.
• More bandwidth in remote areas.
• A more reliable and manageable system.
• Greater security of data.
• Establishment of a help-desk.

Activ8me exceeded the client’s expectations for this project. As well as offering a reliable and state of the art solution, our scale and market leader position enabled us to provide commercial satellite speeds at consumer prices.