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HOME > ABOUT > PRESS > CALRHIO SUPPORTS SAFETY NET
Article published - August 20, 2007
Credit: Healthcare IT News
CalRHIO supports HIE with grants to four 'safety net' organizations
By Richard Pizzi, Associate Editor
SAN FRANCISCO – CalRHIO, through a grant from Blue Shield of California Foundation, is funding four safety net organizations up to $85,000 each to strengthen, advance, or expand existing health information exchange initiatives.
The initiatives are aimed at improving clinical efficiency, quality of care, and patient safety.
The four awardees are:
- Alliance Medical Center, Healdsburg
- Community Health Partnership, Santa Clara
- San Francisco Community Clinic Consortium, San Francisco
- Tehachapi Valley Health Care District, Tehachapi
"We are delighted to be able to help these organizations go the next level,” said Melanie Allison, CalRHIO Chief Technology Officer. “Each project has potential to significantly advance health information exchange in its community."
Three of the projects – Alliance Medical Center, Community Health Partnership, and Tehachapi Valley Health Care District – address electronic access to clinical data from local hospitals. Two, the Community Health Partnership and the San Francisco Community Clinic Consortium, also address electronic specialty referrals for the safety net population. The Alliance Medical Center's project also addresses electronic access to lab results and orders.
"These projects will also serve as laboratories for learning and contribute to building the capacity of HIE development in California's safety net community," Allison said. "In the long term, this initiative aims to provide education, information, and resources that will inspire and support more California communities to engage in effective HIE."
CalRHIO said that awardees were chosen through an RFP process and selected by an advisory group that included individuals representing public and rural hospitals and community clinics. Twelve RFPs were submitted from across the state.
CalRHIO is the nonprofit statewide initiative to improve health care safety, quality, and efficiency through the use of information technology and the secure, confidential exchange of health information throughout California.
Article published - August 20, 2007
Credit: Eastbay Business Times
CalRHIO to provide $340,000 to health care information networks
by Chris Rauber
CalRHIO, a statewide initiative to create a secure health care information network linking California hospitals, doctors and clinics, said Monday it is funneling up to $340,000 to four "safety net" health information exchanges in San Francisco, Healdsburg, Santa Clara and Southern California's Tehachapi Valley.
Three of the four networks are based in the greater San Francisco Bay Area.
The funding was made available through an earlier grant from Blue Shield of California Foundation, officials at San Francisco-based CalRHIO said Aug. 20.
The four awardees, who will net up to $85,000 each to strengthen or expand existing information networks, include:
- The San Francisco Community Clinic Consortium
- Healdsburg's Alliance Medical Center
- Santa Clara's Community Health Partnership
- The Tehachapi Valley Health Care District
"We are delighted to be able to help these organizations go the next level," Melanie Allison, CalRHIO's chief technology officer, said in the statement.
According to CalRHIO, three of the projects -- Alliance Medical Center, Community Health Partnership and the Tehachapi Valley Health Care District -- address electronic access to clinical data from local hospitals. Two, the Community Health Partnership and the San Francisco Community Clinic Consortium, also involve electronic specialty referrals for the safety net population. The Alliance Medical Center's project additionally addresses electronic access to lab results and orders, CalRHIO said.
Allison described these projects as "laboratories for learning" as CalRHIO continues work on designing and building a $300 million health care information exchange linking providers statewide, and to help local groups build networks linking safety net providers.
In late March, Molly Coye, M.D., one of the nonprofit group's founding board members and president and CEO of San Francisco's Health Technology Center, said the hope is to have the statewide system's "backbone" in place within about 18 months -- or roughly a year from now -- and to complete the statewide health IT exchange "within two to three years." Spokeswoman Karen Hunt said CalRHIO "is still hoping to meet that deadline."
HealthTech launched CalRHIO in early 2005, and spun it off as an independent nonprofit a year later.
Awardees for the current round of grants were chosen from 12 submissions through an RFP process and selected by an advisory group that included individuals representing public and rural hospitals and community clinics.
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