• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Millions Awarded to Healthcare IT Projects

Posted on: Tuesday, 20 December 2005, 06:00 CST

By Anonymous

HEALTHCARE

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has awarded grants of more than $22.3 million to aid in implementing healthcare IT projects.

The awards, which will go to 16 institutions in 15 states, carry with them "very specific goals as part of the funding criteria of how the grants [should] impact safety and quality of healthcare," says Carolyn M. Clancy, AHRQ's director. "The clear expectation of health IT is the demonstration of quality improvements."

The grants are designed to encourage the sharing of health information between providers, labs, pharmacies and patients, with the goal of decreasing medication errors and duplicative testing, Clancy says. She hopes the projects that result from these grants will help the AHRQ move forward with broader implementation of health IT in the United States.

Recipients, which include hospitals, healthcare networks and universities, were selected from a group of AHRQ grantees who received health IT planning funds in 2004. The additional funding provided by these grants will allow the institutions to carry out plans they developed with earlier grants. Eleven of the 16 grants were awarded to small and rural communities-areas of special emphasis for AHRQ's health IT initiative.

"These grantees started from scratch, many in rural and underserved areas, and in less than a year, they've laid the groundwork to build valuable health IT systems in their communities," Clancy said.

An example of this is Franklin Foundation Hospital in Gulf Coast Louisiana. The hospital will use the grant money to integrate health information and communications systems to support chronic disease management. The hospital plans to improve patient safety and eliminate duplication of efforts along the way.

The University of Tennessee will use its grant money to develop an integrated electronic health record system to improve coordination of services, continuity of care, timeliness of follow- up and patient tracking for children with special healthcare needs.

The grants are worth between $600,000 and $1.5 million each, with most around $1.4 million.

A complete list of the hospitals receiving grants can be found at http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2005pres/ 20051006.html.

With these 16 awards, AHRQ's investment in health IT totals more than $166 million. It's part of President Bush's initiative to promote the adoption of health IT by local communities and healthcare providers, especially in rural and small communities, and to work with states to develop regional health information networks. Health and Human Services awarded 40 grants to promote healthcare IT in 2004.

Copyright American Society for Quality Dec 2005

Source: Quality Progress

More News in this Category