SYLVA — The three counties west of the Balsam Mountains served by WestCare Health System just got a little closer, thanks to the lightning-fast flow of information over a new fiber-optic network.

“I could drive the film of a CAT scan 30 miles from Bryson City to Sylva faster than I could send it over our T1 line,” said Shawn Remacle, WestCare’s chief information officer. “Now we can move that same image in 13 seconds.”

WestCare had been buying Internet access from Verizon, using a T1 business line. For about the same cost, WestCare can buy about 25 times more bandwidth from BalsamWest FiberNET, Remacle said.

Faster delivery of crucial medical data means better care for patients. WestCare runs a central radiology office to analyze X-rays and scans taken at Harris Regional Hospital in Sylva and Swain County Hospital in Bryson City.

“If you’re in the emergency room, you wouldn’t want to be the guy having to wait an hour for the transmission of your data,” Remacle said.

BalsamWest brings more competition for Internet bandwidth to the rural parts of Western North Carolina, said John Short, the network’s general manager.

“In bigger cities like Raleigh or Charlotte, you could have a choice of seven carriers. Competition helps bring prices down,” Short said.

With 1,000 employees in five facilities in Swain, Macon and Jackson counties, WestCare is the largest customer to sign with BalsamWest so far, Short said.

BalsamWest FiberNet has built a 255-mile fiber-optic ring to bring high-speed Internet access to six counties in Western North Carolina and through northeastern Georgia and eastern Tennessee. Drake Enterprises in Franklin and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians provided the $10 million to build the network.

Short said the Cherokee have nearly completed their 27-mile portion through the Qualla Boundary.

The tribe will be able to use that broadband to improve government services and health care offered at Cherokee Indian Hospital, said Brandon Stephens, a tribal grant writer and member of the BalsamWest board of directors. Telemedicine will be able to serve tribe members in remote communities such as Snow in Graham County or Big Cove in Jackson County, he said.

“Hospitals will be able to lower their costs and increase the speed of what they’re doing. In an area like here that is riddled with diabetes, we’ll be able to access information and medical care quicker,” Stephens said.