Research and Projects: AHRQ THQIT and SRD Portfolio

Illinois

Linking Rural Providers to Improve Patient Care and Health

Description:  Develops a central electronic health record system that will allow sharing of health information between a hospital, medical group, county health department, and behavioral health organization for rural economically disadvantaged, ethnic/racial minority residents, the elderly, and persons with special/complex health care needs.

Abstract:  DESCRIPTION (provided by the applicant): This application is in response to RFA-HS-04-010, a THQIT planning grant. It is entitled "Linking Rural Providers to Improve Patient Care and Health" and has as its major objective the development of a comprehensive plan to enable the sharing of health information between three HIT partners: a local acute care hospital and associated medical group; the county health department; and the local behavioral health organization. These three organizations currently have separate health record systems and share patient information via a paper system. The specific aim of the project is to plan the development of a central Electronic Health Record (EHR) system that will afford the sharing of health information between the organizations incorporating recently adopted standards-based data sharing. To effect this plan, there will be four task forces: 1) a legal task force to create a HIPAA compliant plan that will permit the transfer of protected health information; 2) a clinical task force that will delineate information to be transferred, access parameters, authorization parameters, and staff training plans; 3) an administrative task force that will develop project funding plans; and 4) a technical task force that will develop the specific hardware, software, and networking plans to affect the sharing of information. The ultimate goal of the project is to provide coordination of quality and safe health care services for disparate groups within the county (rural economically disadvantaged, ethnic/racial minority residents, and older and younger persons with special/complex health care needs).

Year 1 Funding:  $199,053

Estimated Total Funding:  $199,053

Principal Investigator:  Timothy Broos

Applicant Institution:  Katherine Shaw Bethea Hospital

City/Town:  Dixon, Illinois

State:  Illinois

Grant Number:  P20 HS15023

Category:  Planning Grants (THQIT)

Thesaurus Terms:  

automated health care system, computer assisted patient care, data management, health care service availability, health care service planning, rural health
computer program /software, computer system design /evaluation, behavioral /social science research tag, health services research tag

Project Start Date:  Sep 30, 2004

Project End Date:  Sep 29, 2005