HIT Case Studies: Community Clinic Healthcare March 7, 2005 George Swetzer NSRHN Technology Officer

Northern Sierra Rural Health Network - History Founded in 1995 to develop collaborative response to issues of concern to rural providers Diverse membership of rural clinics, rural hospitals, county public health, and urban tertiary care centers Has grown from 4 counties and 12 members to 9 counties and 40 members

Northern Sierra Rural Health Network: Provider Members 15 Community clinics 10 Rural hospitals 2 Urban hospitals Other safety net providers - private practice groups & private practices Health departments & facilities

Northern Sierra Rural Health Network: Ongoing Activities Telemedicine network VPN & Broadband network IT support Behavioral Health Program Collaboration with Shasta Consortium of Community Health Clinics (SCCHC)

NSRHN Community Clinic IT Issues Funding for IT Lack of technical staff Lack of IT planning Aging computers and networks Rural bandwidth Providers without IT tools

NSRHN Community Clinic Funding Healthy Communities Access Program (HCAP) Grant –Technology Services Center (TSC) Tides Grant –Rural Broadband Network –Shared Practice Management & EHR Planning Blue Cross and California Telemedicine & eHealth Center (CTEC) –Telemedicine

NSRHN TSC: Supporting Clinic Issues Help Desk – computers, network, VPN, broadband IT Support Services contracts Server and application hosting HCAP funded desktop & server upgrades, PDAs Technology education for providers –EHR preparation –PDA training Clinic IT planning & regional coordination Planning for regional data sharing (RHIO?)

Questions????? George Swetzer Technology Officer