Community Health Electronic Health Record Exchange (CHEX): A HEAL NY Proposal by PCIP
PCIP's EHR expansion project will involve community health centers (CHCs) as well as small to mid-sized private practices. This section describes implementation plan for CHCs.
Context | Improving Health of Individuals and the Community | CHEX Project Participants | CHEX Objectives | Potential Benefits
Context
Community Health Electronic Health Record Exchange (CHEX) is a project proposed by the Primary Care Information Project (PCIP), the Community Health Center Association of New York State (CHCANYS), and the Primary Care Development Corporation (PCDC) in response to a request for grant applications (RGA) under the Health Care Efficiency and Affordability Law for New Yorkers Capital Grant Program (“HEAL NY Program”), issued by the New York State Department of Health.
The CHEX project, if funded, will use the requested $6.4 million plus $9.6 million contribution from member CHCs to provide the financial, technical, and organizational support needed to adopt and implement electronic health records (EHR) and health information exchange (HIE). It will also assist community providers and Medicaid managed care companies to better share patient health information to improve the quality of care.
Improving Health of Individuals and the Community
Incorporating HIT and HIE into clinical practice is expected to improve the quality of individual care through efficient and secure sharing of health information among care providers. In addition to serving the immediate needs of clinicians, PCIP, on behalf of the New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), will ensure that HIE systems maintain a population-based focus, thus improving health outcomes on the community level.
CHEX Project Participants
CHEX will strengthen the infrastructure and capacity of the Primary Care Health Information Consortium (PCHIC), a new and expanding collaborative among 29 CHCs, DOHMH, New York Presbyterian Hospital, and ten Medicaid managed care companies to improve and update health care through HIT and HIE. CHCs collectively constitute the “safety net providers” of health care by overwhelmingly serving medically underserved populations, the majority of whom are on Medicaid or uninsured.
CHEX Objectives
CHEX project will assist over 640 primary care providers operating in over 150 locations in the adoption of qualified electronic health records (EHR) systems through financial and technical support, and through sharing of information and experience among PCHIC members. Qualified EHR systems must meet interoperability and functionality standards set forth by the Certification Commission for Health Care Information Technology (CCHIT) and PCHIC.
CHEX project will also create the necessary technological and informational infrastructure for an effective HIE. DOHMH will create the data repository architecture and data connections that 1) Enable appropriate exchange of health information among CHCs, insurers, other health care entities, and public health; 2) Populate newly implemented EHRs with a core set of standardized demographic and clinical data; and 3) Connect CHCs to other health information exchanges.
Potential Benefits
By implementing interoperable EHR systems in CHC stakeholders, we project that CHEX will have a profound impact on quality and efficiency of care. By reducing medical errors, prescribing errors, test redundancy, and long-term costs; increasing access to better health among minority population and information-sharing among healthcare entities; and preventing fraud, CHEX project can potentially:
- • Save up to 2,085 patient lives
- • Avoid 18,919 emergency room visits
- • Add 91,292 workdays for our patients
- • Avoid 892,468 days in bed by our patients
- • Avoid 170,144 unscheduled outpatient visits
- • Save New York State Medicaid $16 million i
i These figures were calculated using formulas developed as part of the RAND Study.
