141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

288101
Creating sustainable system-level community change through health information technology

Wednesday, November 6, 2013 : 1:10 PM - 1:30 PM

Liam Bouchier , Information Services Division, Louisiana Public Health Institute, New Orleans, LA
Gaurav Nagrath, MBA , Louisiana Public Health Institute, New Orleans, LA
Seema Gai, MD, MPH , Department of Prevention, NO/AIDS Task Force, New Orleans, LA
Background Through the Office of the National Coordinator, Beacon Community Program funding, the Greater New Orleans area region endeavored to address the community's care coordination gaps, after much research and validation the community procured an open source HIT solution which was then piloted and implemented.

Objective/Purpose The Greater New Orleans Health Information Exchange (GNOHIE) is a community-shared open source HIE solution and infrastructure that facilitates innovative care coordination and chronic disease management by enhancing information and process linkages across multiple health systems to improve the quality of care.

o Emergency Department/Inpatient Notification: Alerts and clinical information are sent in real time to primary care providers about patient visits to emergency departments and hospital admissions. Caregivers are then able to contact the patient and ensure the necessary follow up care occurs to help prevent unnecessary readmissions.

o Electronic Specialty Care Referral: Referral requests and supporting documentation of the referring primary care provider are sent electronically to the specialist. Specialist consult summaries are, in turn, provided electronically to the primary care provider.

Methods The retrospective and ongoing evaluation of these interventions is made possible using a mixed methods approach. Sources of information include the GNOHIE, electronic health records (EHR) systems, site visits and individual interviews with key clinic and hospital staff.

Results Research is still ongoing, but preliminary findings will be presented to include: 1) The strategy of working with an operational, open-source HIE, 2) Sustainability model 3) Frequency of patient visits to facilities beyond the medical home.

Discussions/Conclusions The HIE solution implemented by the CCBC was done so at a fraction of the cost of traditional proprietary HIE systems, the coordination of care in the Greater New Orleans area for connected entities can now be improved and planned for improvement at a system level.

Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Administration, management, leadership
Other professions or practice related to public health

Learning Objectives:
assess the benefits of open source technologies and their application to the Health informatics sector and community health clinics. describe the value proposition of open source technologies the level both from a cost, integration and scalability and sustainability perspective. demonstrate the value of community involvement and community led large scale complex IT system implementations.

Keywords: Information Systems, Infrastructure

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have served as the Associate Director for Information services overseeing the procurement and implementation of the open-source solution for health information exchange in the Greater New Orleans Area.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.