Western NC Regional Health Care Data Link Project AHEC CIO/ITG Meeting September 15, 2005

v Alliance of all 16 WNC hospitals v Initiatives: –Group purchasing, quality of care, health professional shortages, benchmarking v Affiliate members include: –Mountain AHEC –All WNC county health departments –Hospitals outside WNC for group purchasing WNC Health Network

Electronic Linkage v Desire to access and transmit electronic patient medical records across the region. v Disparate information systems: MediTech: 6CPSI: 5 MediTech: 6CPSI: 5 Cerner: 2HBOC: 1 Cerner: 2HBOC: 1 RPMS: 1 RPMS: 1

Project Goals v Long range goal –Longitudinal electronic medical record that can be accessed and updated real time by authorized health care providers. v Short term goal –Transmission of electronic information between WNC hospitals

Project Technology Options v Secured Message Management v Database/Repository v Database/Warehouse v Document Management v Portal Platform

Key Project Parameters v Consensus: –No central repository. –Each hospital retain its chosen information system. –Build a foundation that can be expanded to meet long-range goal. –Portal platform chosen v Received $2.5m in HRSA funds

Identify Vendors and Systems v Unsure what technology was available –Conducted RFI process –Conducted RFP process of selected vendors v Selected IBM and AccessPt to develop the system.

Phased-in Approach v Phase I –16 WNC hospitals –13 months v Phase II –WNC physician offices, health departments, clinics, other providers

Concerns v Implementation costs –$2.5 m+ v Ongoing costs –$500,000/year v EMR adoption –Hospitals –Physicians

Western NC Regional Health Care Data Link Project