Project: Delta Rural Hospital Electronic Health Record Project (DHI Project #45)
Partner: MS Hospital Association, Health, Research & Educational Foundation (MHA-F)
Physician offices often depend upon local community hospitals for lab, pharmacy, x-ray, and ancillary services; therefore, synchronized implementation of Health Information Technology (HIT) is optimal to assure essential communication between patients and providers across the continuum of health care. A great challenge faced by small and rural hospitals is having the cash flow to begin the acquisition process for HIT prior to the availability of Federal funds allocated to off-set the cost of HIT infrastructure. This project, the Mississippi Delta Rural Hospital EHR Project, will “jump start” HIT implementation in three selected small and rural hospitals serving the Mississippi Delta by providing seed funds to begin HIT acquisition processes and provision a shared Chief Information Officer (CIO)/HIT Project Manager.
This project will create a replicable model for HIT implementation in small and rural hospitals throughout the Delta and will improve patient and providers’ access to essential information regarding medical history, diagnostic studies, general and specialty physicians’ plans of care, medications, allergies, and other aspects of health care. Activities include:
- Based on HIT readiness assessments conducted between January 1 and June 30, 2010, dedicated funding will be provided to “jump-start” implementation of electronic health records (EHR) in three small and rural Mississippi Delta hospitals;
- Provide a Chief Information Officer will be shared by the three selected hospitals to serve as HIT project implementation specialist. The CIO will provide expert HIT consultation and oversight for the implementation of EHR achieving critical benchmarks in meaningful use of HIT and will have other experts at his/her disposal as special needs are identified in the implementation process;
- Transfer HIT knowledge from CIO to key designated staff within each hospital selected for the project in order to improve knowledge, self-sufficiency, self-confidence, and HIT skills/competence at the local community level; and
- Contract with external evaluators (PRS) to review the project for both process and long term outcomes.
- Document replicable “best practices” and “lessons learned” regarding HIT/EHR implementation and meaningful exchange of health care information.
You may email at: beacon@deltahealthalliance.org
