Last summer, the State of California’s Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA) received $2.75 million to advance HIE for emergency medical services over two years to advance the use of the Health Information Exchange (HIE) statewide during a disaster.
The funds will be used to develop two health IT projects over two years. One project will develop connectivity between existing health information organizations to support healthcare provider access to health records statewide during a disaster. The second project will provide technology and infrastructure to give EMS providers in the field access to send and receive critical patient information.
On January 28, 2016, EMSA issued a proposal request seeking applicants to develop a “Patient Unified Look-Up System for Emergencies” (PULSE). The PULSE solution will develop inter-connectivity and exchange tools to enable health information exchange between HIOs during disaster situations.
PULSE will connect multiple local data sources to an HIE interoperability broker to be separately selected. During a disaster, the web portal will be activated, enabling healthcare professionals employed by health systems or participating with HIOs to access patient records through their existing systems.
EMSA anticipates making a single competitive award of approximately $500,000. The application deadline is February 26, 2016 at 2:00 pm. For more information email Lisa Vigil EMS Grants Coordinator at lisa.vigil@emsa.ca.gov.
In other news, multiple data initiatives are driving rapid changes in EMS data systems at the local, state, and national levels. In a January 5, 2016 in a memo distributed by Howard Backer, MD, Director of the State EMSA, reported that National EMS Information System (NEMSIS) 3.4 compliant software is now required for all EMS providers to allow for real-time entry at the patient’s bedside and the ability to share electronic patient data across other healthcare organizations.
The memo points out that four bills were passed by the state legislature and signed by the Governor during 2015 related to data, quality, and the electronic movement of health information:
- AB 503 authorizes a health facility to share patient identifiable information with a defined EMS provider, local EMS agency, and EMSA
- AB 1129 requires that EHRs and data collection be compliant with national standards as defined by NEMSIS and the California EMS Information System
- AB 1223 requires EMSA to adopt standards related to data collection for ambulance patient off load time
- SB19 enacts the California POLST eRegistry Pilot Act and requires EMSA to establish a pilot project to operate an electronic registry
For more information, go to www.emsa,ca.gov.