OpenNotes is a national movement to give patients access to their own visit notes written by doctors, nurses, or other clinicians. OpenNotes is a process change where physicians give patients access to their visit notes through a patient portal or by simply printing them out.
The New York State Health Foundation (NYSHealth) www.NYSHealth.org will award grants of up to $100,000 to go to ten hospitals in New York State that are interested in implementing OpenNotes at their facilities. Applicants must have a commitment to the mission of OpenNotes www.opennotes.org at their facilities and will also need to develop creative strategies to ensure that patients will use OpenNotes.
The RFP is open to any hospital in New York State interested in implementing OpenNotes. However, hospitals that serve vulnerable populations, reach large numbers of patients through an OpenNotes implementation, employ an opt-out model so that the default is for physicians to share notes with patients, and demonstrate creative ways to deliver notes to patients will be favorably considered in the selection process.
Proposals need to include:
- Scale of the project and the number of patients who will receive access to their notes
- Demonstrate that there is support for the project from clinical leadership and management
- In-kind contributions by the hospital in the form of financial support and/or staff resources will be favorably considered in the selection process
- A detailed implementation plan and timeline as to how many providers and departments will participate
- A plan to produce a White paper or case study documenting the experience implementing OpenNotes and a strategy to publicly share the project’s results and lessons learned
The deadline for proposals in June 8, 2017 with proposals to be submitted through NYSHealth’s online application system. Programmatic questions about the funding opportunity should be emailed to OpenNotesRFP@NYSHealth.org.Technical questions regarding the online application system should be emailed to grantsmanagement@NYSHealth.org.