‘Beacon’ communities must show HIT bona fides
By Mary Mosquera
Monday, December 14, 2009
Communities that vie for grants to become health IT “beacons” under a federal program to set up models of meaningful health information usage must show that a good portion of their local providers already embrace e-heath records and electronic health information sharing.
The Obama administration earlier this month said it would offer 15 communities grants of up to $20 million to support connectivity and the meaningful use of health IT, such as clinical decision support. The communities would act as business models to inspire other groups to be productive users of the technology.
To become a “beacon” community, applicants must have an established track record of using health IT to improve health care in at least one category -- cost efficiency, quality of care or population health, said Dr. Farzad Mostashari, senior advisor to the Office of the National Coordinator for health IT during a Dec. 14 teleconference.
ONC said it would like the program to get on a fast track. “We want to see what is possible in a relatively short time period, within 30 months,” he said in giving more details of the grants, applications for which are due Feb. 1.
The goal is to demonstrate a vision of the future where hospitals, clinicians and patients as a “community achieves measurable improvements in healthcare quality, safety, efficiency and population health,” Mostashari said.
With the grant awards, ONC wants to show by example how health IT and information exchange can facilitate practice redesign, care coordination, process re-engineering and performance monitoring and feedback, he said.
ONC expects communities that apply for the grants to have a head start in using health IT for those changes. “You must convincingly demonstrate that you’re a community that with past success has a credible shot at showing future success,” he said.
One of the requirements for the program is that the community be able to establish that there is a minimum health IT adoption rate of 20 percent, which is considered the average overall U.S. adoption rate, Mostashari said.
It is also important that communities be made up of public and private healthcare providers and “have multi-stakeholder engagement across unaffiliated practices” to incorporate more elements of their community, Mostashari stated.
He recommended that the communities geographically be smaller than states so that the organizations can demonstrate measurable results in the short time allotted for the effort.
To accomplish the improvements in cost efficiency, quality of care and population health, the grant awardees will be able to select their own metrics. For instance, “a multi-pronged community approach” can focus on blood pressure control to achieve a reduction in the incidence of stroke, Mostashari said.
