Health Information Exchange Pilot Project
The emerging field of Health Information Technology (HIT) was first identified as the solution to gaps in quality of care in identified in the 2005 Chatham County Safety Net Planning Council (CCSNPC) Strategic Planning Session. Evaluation trends had revealed that the uninsured patients cared for in the CCSNPC system of providers sought care in multiple locations, had medical information scattered among various providers, had medical records at individual providers that were likely to be incomplete and were vulnerable to errors due to missing information. Further, the CCSNPC had an unknown amount of duplication of data in evaluation reports, was extremely limited in producing valid data using paper records because of the extremely limited staff available to review them and could follow trends in access to care but could not follow health outcomes across the CCSNPC system. These challenges continued throughout the subsequent annual evaluations.The members of the Chatham County Safety Net Planning Council (CCSNPC) have a vision that Chatham County's health care delivery structure will adopt a fully integrated health information exchange (HIE) that improves health care quality and improves health outcomes for all patients. To accomplish this vision, CCSNPC created the CCSNPC Health Information Technology project in late 2006. The project's goal is to expand the use of health information technology (HIT) and promote its use in the delivery of health care in our community. The project sought and successfully received funding through the Georgia Department of Community Health and the Health Resources and Services Administration.
Leadership and governance is provided by the CCSNPC IT Consortium. The IT Consortium is comprised of representatives of the information technology staff of Memorial Health University Medical Center, St. Joseph's Candler Health Systems, Community Health Mission, St. Mary's Health Center, Good Samaritan, J.C. Lewis Primary Healthcare Center, Curtis V. Cooper Primary Health Care and Chatham County Health Department. The group meets to plan and execute the deliverables of the grants received and to assess progress in engaging the healthcare community in adoption of health information technology. Ms. Patty Lavely, CIO, Memorial University Medical Center is the Consortium Chair and the meetings are hosted by CCSNPC's community partner, Savannah Business Group.
CCSNPC is committed to the continued planning and implementation of an interoperable health information exchange platform among the two hospital systems, the five CCSNPC providers, public health and other community partners.
Read more about the Georgia Department of Community Health grant.
Read more about the Health Resources and Services Administration grant.
