HIE in Florida Picks Vendors

HDM Breaking News, May 9, 2008

An emerging health information exchange serving Ocala, Fla., and greater Marion County has signed contacts with two information technology vendors and has selected a third partner.

The Greater Ocala Health Information Trust Inc., operating under the umbrella organization Healthy Ocala, has a three-prong plan for connectivity in the community. The organization wants to offer personal health records to consumers, a health information exchange to providers, and a hosted electronic health records system for community physicians.

Three hospitals and other providers, the chamber of commerce and the local medical society formed Healthy Ocala to administer the initiative.

Healthy Ocala has signed a community license with Las Vegas-based WorldDoc Inc. for a PHR application and complementary services, such as a self-triage symptom evaluator, health assessment tools and a medical library. Hospitals and employers would sponsor the PHRs, says Bob Holloran, vice chair of Healthy Ocala.

The organization also has signed a contract with Boston-based PatientKeeper Inc. to provide integration services and a physician Web portal, which together would form the platform for a health information exchange linking hospitals, physician practices and other providers.

Further, Healthy Ocala has selected a vendor, which it will not yet identify, for a community hosted EHR for physicians. The vendor is modifying its software to be delivered via the application service provider computing model and then must have it certified under criteria set by the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology.

The local medical society will offer the software to physicians, and PatientKeeper likely will host it with users paying subscription fees, Holloran says. The few practices in the community already using an EHR would have to pay PatientKeeper to integrate their system with the community EHR and physician portal, he adds.

Funding for these initiatives, however, is not yet guaranteed. PatientKeeper has agreed to roll up its costs, including implementation expenses, over the life of the contract, Holloran says. WorldDoc’s implementation fees are nominal, and sponsors, such as employers and hospitals, will pay for the PHR and related software. The sheriff’s department, for example, has expressed interest in a basic PHR to document treatment given to inmates that they can provide to other physicians when they are released, he adds.

Healthy Ocala does not have firm funding commitments from members, although Holloran contends, “We expect to be sustainable from Day One.” To date, members are paying nominal dues that are funding administrative costs and such items as liability insurance. The organization believes its annual costs will be a couple hundred thousand dollars after the first year, he adds.

For more information, e-mail Holloran at bobholloran@healthyocala.org.

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