The Chatham County Safety Net Planning Council, Inc. (Planning Council) was formed in 2004 by the Chatham County Commission to assist local providers meeting the healthcare needs of uninsured and underinsured Chatham County residents. In 2008, Safety Net established ChathamHealthLink (CHL), Georgia’s first health information exchange (HIE).
CHL members include:
Hospital Systems
Federally Qualified Health Centers
Free Clinics
- Community Health Mission (Closed December 2014)
Non-traditional Partners
- Chatham County Detention Center
- Gateway Behavioral Health Services
- Chatham Care Center, a Ryan White HIV+ Center
In October 2014, ChathamHealthLink merged with the Georgia Regional Academic Community Health Information Exchange (GRAChIE).
The Planning Council has worked in partnership with GRAChIE to bring additional providers into the HIE. SouthCoast Health and The Merit Health Netwok Independent Physician’s Association (Merit IPA), as well as rural hospital referral networks are now live and exchanging meaningful data in GRAChIE. In addition, GRAChIE is now connected to Georgia Health Information Network (GaHIN), the state HIE, eHealth Exchange, the national HIE, United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Department of Defence (DoD) and are now building our connection with the Social Security Administration (SSA).
As of As of June 30, 2018, GRAChIE contained 2,557,816 unique patients with 39 data contributors.