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The Health Technology Center Announces Grants From Major California Health Care Organizations to Launch CalRHIO

Posted on: Tuesday, 19 April 2005, 12:00 CDT

Sutter Health, Kaiser Permanente, WellPoint Foundation, California HealthCare Foundation and Others Fund Development of Regional Health Information Organizations

The Health Technology Center (HealthTech) announced today that several large California health care organizations will fund CalRHIO (www.calrhio.org), a collaborative statewide initiative to develop secure data exchange systems that will enable providers and patients to electronically access vital health care information when and where it is needed.

"Every day in California, patients seeking care and thousands of providers are frustrated by health information in stacks of paper files or locked up in computer systems that can't talk to each other," said Molly Coye, CEO of HealthTech, which is managing CalRHIO. "Building a statewide system for exchanging healthcare data, and ensuring that all patients have electronic health records, is work we must do for Californians."

Funding for the CalRHIO office and sponsorship of five California summit meetings, including the first in San Francisco today, was provided by the California HealthCare Foundation. One million dollar grants have been made by Sutter Health, Kaiser Permanente, and the WellPoint Foundation. The University of California has made a $100,000 grant.

"We're proud to take our commitment to health information technology one step further and work with the CalRHIO partners on this initiative that has the potential to make health services better, safer and more prompt for patients throughout our state -- no matter where they receive care," said Sutter Health President and CEO Van R. Johnson. "By working together to fund and create a statewide health data exchange network, California health care providers will be establishing a model for quality and efficiency in health care that the rest of the nation can and should follow."

Lumetra, the "Quality Improvement Organization in California;" the John Muir/Mt. Diablo Health System, based in Walnut Creek; and the Cedars-Sinai Health System in Los Angeles are among other healthcare organizations providing additional funding for the initiative, which is similar to efforts already underway in other states in response to the national health care technology initiative announced by President Bush in 2004.

David Brailer, M.D., national coordinator for health information technology, is speaking at today's summit meeting.

"Kaiser Permanente supports the work of CalRHIO and its efforts to improve the quality of health care for all Californians," said Simon Cohn, M.D., Associate Executive Director for Health Information Policy of the Permanente Federation, the national organization of the eight Permanente Medical Groups, the physician side of Kaiser Permanente.

Summit participants include leaders from California's key health care stakeholder organizations (e.g., California Medical Association, Health and Human Services Agency, California Chamber of Commerce, CalPERS, California Association of Health Plans) who will learn about CalRHIO, start the process of defining the infrastructure necessary for statewide health data exchange, and begin to identify legislation and regulation required for implementation of an integrated statewide health data exchange network.

Working groups have been established to focus on critical data exchange issues including privacy and security, governance, clinical information, technology, consumer involvement, and finance and business models. A list of organizations and individuals participating in CalRHIO are available on the Web, www.calrhio.org.

According to Ann Donovan, CalRHIO project manager, the initiative will build on regional data exchange efforts already underway in San Diego, Los Angeles, and Santa Barbara. CalRHIO's first demonstration project will seek to electronically link California's emergency departments.

"Laboratories, pharmacies, doctors' offices, emergency rooms, hospitals, and nursing homes will all contribute to better care when they are able to share their information," said Coye. "Everyone involved in healthcare -- from patients and their families to physicians, nurses, and hospital and health plan leaders responsible for cost and quality management -- knows that excellence in patient care requires access to critical patient information."

About CalRHIO

CalRHIO (California Regional Health Information Organization) is a nonprofit collaborative statewide initiative to improve the quality and efficiency of health care through the use of information technology and development of secure health information data exchange systems in California communities. For more information visit www.calrhio.org.

About HealthTech

HealthTech is a non-profit research and education organization based in San Francisco that develops objective forecasts, innovative decision-making tools, and facilitates a learning network of experts for the benefit of healthcare systems, hospitals, safety-net providers, government agencies, and others facing critical decisions on emerging healthcare technologies. For more information visit www.healthtech.org.

Source: Business Wire

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