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New Video Shows How Maine Clinicians Are Using HealthInfoNet To Improve Care
Clinicians across Maine are featured in a new video designed to build participation in HealthInfoNet.
More than a dozen physicians, nurses and medical assistants taking part in HealthInfoNet's Demonstration Phase were interviewed for the video, which is now available on YouTube (click here to see video) For more information, contact HealthInfoNet's Jim Harnar at jharnar@maine.rr.com.
Key Operations Positions Filled On HealthInfoNet Staff
HealthInfoNet has named two key executives to its operations staff. Shaun Alfreds is HealthInfoNet's new Senior Director of Operations. A nationally known authority on electronic exchanges, Alfreds led an extensive ROI analysis of HealthInfoNet while serving as Senior Project Director at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He also has advised the National Governors Association on Health IT issues and worked directly with leaders in Maine in the development of the state's recently completed statewide HIT strategy. Todd Rogow has joined HealthInfoNet as Project Manager. Rogow has held a number of key project management positions in IT, most recently at IDEXX Laboratories. Earlier in his career he served as Manager of IT Planning and Implementation at MCI Worldcom and Deputy Program Manager at Northrop Grumman Corporation Health Solutions.
Contact Information:
Shaun Alfreds
Senior Director of Operation
salfreds@hinfonet.org
207-430-0639
Todd
Rogow
Project Manager
trogow@hinfonet.org
207-430-0637
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"Health Information Technology is swiftly becoming essential in today's health care
world---but it's not enough for just the big hospitals to have it. For
these records to be truly comprehensive, your family doctor at the town
clinic needs it, too"
Congresswoman Chellie Pingree,April, 2010 commenting on the federal government's award of $4.7 million to Maine's HealthInfoNet.
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New Federal Funding Will Help Maine
Drive Up EMR Use
HealthInfoNet has been awarded $4.7 million to develop the
Regional Extension Center (REC) for Maine. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information
Technology (ONC) has identified the REC program as a key strategy for accelerating
the adoption of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems by primary care
providers. Over the duration
of the REC grant, HealthInfoNet will manage a process of group purchasing,
service contracting and certification of provider progress in the adoption and use of EMR's in Maine. EMR vendors and suppliers of EMR
"implementation and optimization" services will be invited to submit contract
bids to HealthInfoNet through an RFP process. HealthInfoNet will then select and manage the contract relationships
with a core portfolio of vendors and suppliers on behalf of participating
provider organizations. The objectives
will be to drive down the cost of investment in EMR technology, help providers
successfully implement EMRs and to optimize the use of EMR technology by
providers in conjunction with "meaningful use" criteria that have been defined by
the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and ONC. In its proposal to ONC for the REC grant,
HealthInfoNet committed to support more than 1,000 "priority" primary care providers
across Maine in their transition to using EMR systems.
Earlier this year the federal government awarded $6.7 million to the State of Maine to support formation of the Office of the State Coordinator of Health IT and the development of Maine's statewide health information exchange (HIE). HealthInfoNet will receive $4.4 million of this funding over the next four years. The funding will be used to help transition HealthInfoNet later this year from a two-year Demonstration Phase toward statewide implementation.
Learn more about HealthInfoNet's demonstration phase at www.hinfonet.org.
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Executive Order Designates HealthInfoNet As Maine's HIE
| Governor John Baldacci has issued an Executive
Order that formally establishes a new State Office of the Coordinator of Health Technology. The Order also designates HealthInfoNet as Maine's statewide health information exchange. HealthInfoNet will continue to operate as an independent non-profit organization. The establishment of a state coordinator position is a requirement of the federal government's Office of the National Coordination of Health IT (ONC). Initially, the new office will operate from
within the Governor's Office of Health Policy and Finance. The Order also
establishes a Health Information Steering Committee that will advise the
Coordinator. James Leonard, who was elected to the HealthInfoNet Board of Directors earlier this year, is the director of the new office.
Maine's Health IT Strategic plan (also required by ONC) has set a series of goals for the implementation of electronic systems. By 2015, the plan calls for all people in
Maine to be cared for by healthcare providers who share electronic health and
health related information securely within a connected health care system. By that same year all Mainers will have access to a single "consumer centric life-long
health record." Finally, the plan calls for electronic health care
information to be used to "develop public and private policies throughout the
health care system to promote evidenced based, clinically effective, and
efficient care for all people."
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Washington Meetings Aimed At Building Greater Federal Support For HIT In Maine
A team of healthcare leaders from Maine will be in Washington next week to identify resources and partnerships that will lead to greater funding for HIT in Maine. Physicians, hospitals, consumers and state government will take part in a series of meetings organized by HealthInfoNet. The Maine group expects to confer with the Congressional Delegation as well as senior officials at the Veterans Administration, the Office of the National Coordinator of Health IT and CMS. The meetings follow up a letter that was sent in February to Maine's Congressional Delegation asking for help in securing more federal support. The letter was co-signed by nine statewide organizations, including HealthInfoNet, the Maine Medical Association, the Maine Osteopathic Association, the Maine Hospital Association, AARP, the Maine Health Management Coalition, Quality Counts, the Maine Home Care and Hospice Alliance and the Maine Health Information Management Association.
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