State of Rhode Island’s “Working Group for Healthcare Innovation” on December 1, 2015, released a report listing recommendations that could effectively deal with issues involving the state’s healthcare delivery system.
Like many healthcare systems in the U.S., Rhode Island’s healthcare system faces costs which are rising unsustainably. However, the report points out that transforming the state’s healthcare system could take many years.
The report makes a number of recommendations to increase the adoption of EHRs, expand the use of EHRs, plus build the capabilities for cutting-edge health analytics within the state. Also, the aim is to expand and improve usage of health IT but additional infrastructure components are needed to support the necessary functions in a streamlined and cost-effective manner.
EHR adoption is promoted in the state as an important component of the state’s health IT strategy. The Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) www.health.ri.gov “2015 Statewide Health Inventory” indicates strong overall EHR adoption rates.
The inventory shows 85% of primary care practices, 90% of hospitals, 60% of behavioral health clinics, 55% of outpatient specialty practices, 80% of nursing facilities, 45% of home health agencies, and 25% of assisted living residences are all using EHRs.
“CurrentCare” www.currentcareri.org, the state’s HIE administered by the Rhode Island Quality Institute (RIQI) www.riqi.org is structured as an opt-in centralized HIE service. Patients can have all of their information shared to create a longitudinal healthcare record across healthcare entities that can be made available to designated healthcare providers. To date, there are 480,000 lifetime enrollments in the exchange.
In September 2015, RIQI was awarded a “Community Interoperability and HIE Grant” from the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for $100,000 to support the Rhode Island Behavioral and Medical Information Exchange project. This initiative will connect Butler Hospital and behavioral health providers to CurrentCare so data will be able to be sent electronically between the hospital and behavioral health providers in the state.
RIDOH maintains a separate public health information database for their pediatric population called KIDSNET which captures public health information on all children born in the state. The database was developed to ensure that all children in the state receive the right preventive care at the right time.
The five year vision for HIT capacity in the state is to:
- Complete EHR adoption to reach the goal of 100% adoption for all primary care providers, behavioral healthcare clinics, hospitals, outpatient specialty clinics, and long term care facilities
- Streamline infrastructures so that providers will have access to complete clinical, claims, and quality data at the point of care. The aim is to integrate several statewide databases both with each other and with CurrentCare
- Move towards a centralized analytic platform which can occur if EHR data is documented consistently and aggregated properly to provide the best source of accurate and timely information for large numbers of patients and providers.
- Make it possible for consumers and patients to easily access their own healthcare records, locate supplemental health information, and find cost and quality data
To view the report, go to www.governor.ri.gov/initiatives/healthcare to view the report.