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Feb. 13 - Center for Community Health Leadership Opens Second Round of Grant Application Process

Program Enables Community-wide EHR Adoption and Clinical Information Sharing

The Center for Community Health Leadership™, an organization sponsored by Misys Healthcare Systems to facilitate the development of health information pathways by building connected communities, today announced the opening of its grant application process. The Center invites professionals from physicians’ practices, health information exchange organizations, hospitals and home health agencies interested in sharing clinical data for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes to submit proposals on behalf of their community. The Center grant program was launched in June 2006 to spearhead the widespread adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) at a local level, where healthcare is actually delivered.

Medical organizations within the selected community will receive a grant of EHR software and services for community physicians, and will be given access to connectivity solutions from Misys to facilitate data exchange between area clinicians. Successful applicants must demonstrate a strong commitment to sharing clinical data among community health organizations in an effort to decrease healthcare costs, increase practice efficiency and improve care delivery to its residents.

“Community connectivity capability without electronic data to share is akin to installing a state of the art home theater in your house but forgetting to turn on the cable,” said Leigh Burchell, director of the Center for Community Health Leadership. “By providing Misys’ electronic health record software at zero cost, we in essence turn on the capability for physicians to share information with other regional organizations while also benefitting from workflow efficiencies within their own practice. Further, since high software costs are often the most critical deterrent for physicians interested in EHRs, Misys eliminates that barrier by making the software – the source of electronic data – available for grant recipients at a price they can afford.”

The Center will ultimately distribute $10 million in EHR software in an effort to advance the healthcare experience in the selected communities through broad scale EHR adoption. Since 2006, the Center has awarded substantial grants to the communities of New Haven, Connecticut and Tampa, Florida. As a result of the New Haven grant (awarded in early 2007), Saint Raphael Health System of New Haven is in the process of developing an interoperable healthcare IT network to support the exchange of data with community physicians. In Tampa, almost 90 physician practices recently submitted their individual EHR software requests, following its grant win in November of 2007, and will work with the Center in coming months to determine who is selected for EHR implementation.

“Our selection as a grant winner from the Center for Community Health Leadership has had a direct and immediate impact on our community’s ability to move from talking about EHR adoption to beginning active implementation,” said John Drury, M.D., Chief Medical Information Officer for Hospital of Saint Raphael Health System. “Coupling the guidance from the Center’s advisory board of experts with our collective newfound ability to afford the systems has entirely changed the technology plan for greater New Haven.”

The Center for Community Health Leadership will join Misys Healthcare Systems February 25 - February 28 at the 2008 HIMSS conference (Booth #1601) in Orlando, Florida. In the booth, community health professionals can submit an application through a designated kiosk, receive more information about the grant program, or arrange to speak with health professionals from communities that have been awarded previous grants.

The deadline to submit grant applications to the Center for Community Health Leadership is April 15, 2008. Applications will be reviewed for evidence of a clear community vision of health information exchange, and all grant applicants must be willing to track pre- and post-implementation data at a community and individual organizational level for the purposes of ROI case development. Additionally, communities must be willing to work with the Center and members of the media to discuss the results of implementing the Misys EHR software. Any communities that have previously submitted an application but were not selected for a grant are encouraged to reapply.

To submit an application online, please visit www.misyscenter.com.

Source: Misys Healthcare Systems

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