FREE Health Data Management Site Registration

Sign up today and access the leading source of Health Care I.T. information on the Web.
Your FREE site registration entitles you to:

Free Health Data Management e-newsletter
 
Search more than 12,000 articles
 
Access Web Seminars on a host of I.T. topics
 
White Papers and Industry Research that provide valuable insights on a variety of technologies and implementation issues
 
Podcasts, updates on industry events, and much more!

 
   

Boulder Providers Launch a RHIO


January 10, 2006

A group of physicians, a 99-bed hospital and a health insurer have spearheaded formation of a regional health information organization to serve the Boulder region of Colorado.

The RHIO, called Integrated Physician Network Avista, or iPN Avista, has a particular focus on improving care to persons who are uninsured or on Medicare or Medicaid. Physicians joining the organization commit to accepting more of these patients.

Leaders of the project include Clinica Campesina Family Health Services, a federally qualified health center; Colorado Access, a payer serving the medically underserved; and 14-private physician practices with 19 locations. All total, 108 physicians are charter members of the RHIO.

The charter physicians all are using or have committed to use electronic medical records software from NextGen Healthcare Information Systems, Horsham, Pa. The software will integrate with the hospital information system from Medical Information Technologies Inc., Westwood, Mass., used at Avista Adventist Hospital in Louisville, Colo. The network has completed a laboratory interface with Quest Diagnostics Inc., Lyndhurst, N.J.

The RHIO has received a three-year, $2.3 million grant from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, and the physicians are contributing a total of $1.5 million.

Colorado Access has contributed technical support and project management to iPN Avista. "It would not have gotten off the ground without their help," says David Ehrenberger, M.D., chief medical officer of the RHIO and Avista Adventist Hospital.

Colorado Access supports iPN Avista because the insurer hopes to capture clinical data to improve care management, says Doug Bach, CIO of the health plan and project manager of the RHIO.

With iPN Avista launched, proponents now hope to bring in other providers and payers, Bach says. Avista Adventist Hospital is part of Centura Health, a 12-hospital delivery system serving the state. Proponents now will approach these and competing hospitals, as well as other physician practices, regardless of the information systems they are using.

For more information, send an e-mail to Christopher Sprowl, M.D., president of iPN Avista, at docsprowl@earthlink.net.

Health Information Exchange Archive
Hospitals Archive
Group Practices Archive
Payers Archive

I.T. Spotlights