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>>Pilot project to improve electronic health record exchange


Stephen Klasko, MD, MBA, vice president for USF Health (at podium), said USF shares the state's vision for an integrated electronic health record system. Back, from left to right, Michael Heekin, chair of the Governor's Health Information Infrastructure Advisory Board; Alan Levine, secretary for the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration; and Lt. Governor Toni Jennings.

Tampa, FL (Jan. 6, 2006) -- The Tampa Bay Partnership Regional Research and Education Foundation, in collaboration with USF Health, has been awarded a $467,000 state grant to create a network that will allow physicians, hospitals, clinics, laboratories and pharmacies to safely and confidentially transmit and share clinical information electronically. The project will also provide patients with control over access to their personal health records and links to health education and wellness programs tailored to their needs.

The two-year pilot project, known as the Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO), was among nine Florida Health Information Network (FHIN) grants announced Jan. 6, 2006, at the USF College of Public Health by Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings and Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Alan Levine. The grants, totaling more than $1.5 million, are designed to facilitate the adoption and use of privacy-protected medical records in Florida.

"Governor Bush has made a strong commitment to supporting the development of statewide electronic health records, while protecting the privacy of our residents," Jennings said.

"A strong electronic health record system will improve health care for all Floridians by reducing medical errors, boosting efficiency and ultimately lowering costs. These grants, along with the Governor's request for additional support, will make Florida a national leader in electronic medical record-keeping."

Stephen Klasko, MD, MBA, vice president for USF Health and dean of the College of Medicine, introduced Lt. Governor Jennings. He said the state has supported planning of the USF Centers for Advanced Healthcare -- a service-oriented, quality-driven ambulatory health care environment that will encompass the latest in medical records technology. 

"We share with the Lt. Governor, with our partners and the citizens of Florida the vision of patient safety and clear measurable outcomes for health care," Dr. Klasko said. "We share with our patients the vision of an integrated medical record as a basis for integrated health. We share with our students an optimistic vision of health care in 2015."

 "Among the greatest benefits of the RHIO will be its impact on patient safety, improved quality and outcome," said Jay Wolfson, DrPH, JD, associate vice president and director of the Suncoast Patient Safety Center at USF. Dr. Wolfson is one of the executive team managers for the grant.

"By reducing paper redundancies, and by making it easier for patients to have their medical information available immediately to any of their approved physicians or providers, quality of care and patient safety will be dramatically improved, and outcomes can be better monitored and measured."

Health care organizations participating in the pilot include Tampa General Hospital, All Children's Hospital, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, USF Health and Medicaid physicians in the Tampa Bay community. Technical support organizations for the project include Gold Standard and USMD. The RHIO team also includes University Community Hospital, the Pepin Heart Institute and BayCare, and Dr. Kiran Patel and Tom Pepin are among the community partners committed to the project.

Participating providers will have access to prescription drug history, laboratory results and inpatient and outpatient data through a personal digital assistant or web-based electronic medical record. They will focus on exchanging information for patients with three specific disease states – adult diabetes, pediatric asthma and prostate cancer.

Executive team managers for the Tampa Bay RHIO are project chair Russ Thomas, CEO of Gold Standard; Peter Hobson, general counsel to Pepin Distributing; Jan Gorrie, attorney with Buchanan Ingersol; and Dr. Wolfson.

The FHIN grant program was developed by AHCA to facilitate the development of a statewide privacy-protected health information infrastructure network as recommended by the Governor's Health Information Infrastructure Advisory Board in its 2005 interim report to the Governor.  The program provides seed money to develop regional health information exchanges and to encourage practitioners to become active users of electronic health records.