CEO Update: Happy New Year! Connect with us!
It’s once again the end of another year. As we wrap up 2021, I’d like to thank you all for your commitment and dedication to rural communities in Colorado. I’m humbled by your service, especially over the past two trying years. While there are many things (such as workforce) that continue to be increasingly problematic, I thought I’d end the year on a positive note with some great accomplishments.
In 2021, CRHC and CCMCN were awarded funding through the Office of E Health Innovation and HCPF for the Rural Connectivity Program. This funding was provided to establish a sustainable model for rural connectivity including:
- Connecting providers to Colorado’s Health Information Exchange (CORHIO/QHN)
- Supporting rural providers to adopt health information, data sharing, and analytics through implementation support
- Providing analytics and tools to support COVID-19 emergency response, care coordination, and quality measurement
Providing rural communities with technical assistance has been an honor. As you may recall, the Lt. Governor, Executive Director of HCPF, and Director of OeHI presented the Rural Connectivity Program to the Joint Technology Committee, which resulted in securing $6.498 million in dedicated funding. I’m pleased to say that this group of amazing individuals once again presented to the Joint Technology Committee to advocate for another $11 million to expand connection to other rural facilities not included in the initial funding. Fingers crossed that this funding will be approved so all rural facilities can get involved in the Rural Connectivity Program!
2021 Rural Connectivity Successes:
- 63 rural facilities out of 84 (32 CAHs and 52 RHCs) have been connected to the Data Vault
- 27 rural facilities out of 84 have data in the system
- 167,894 patient lives are represented in the vault
- 22 rural facilities completed workflow for a Hospital Transformation Measure
- 51 rural facilities completed an environmental scan
- 23 rural facilities were connected to part of the Health Information Exchange
- Dashboards: Current and Historical Attribution for Medicaid. This dashboard helps facilities understand their Medicaid populations over time and trends associated with attribution. Use of this dashboard can assist with better patient care and outreach to patients.
- Dashboards: ADT Summary (Admit, Discharge, or Transfer) information. This dashboard helps facilities see on a daily basis if their patients have been admitted, discharged or transferred from another facility, which translates into better care coordination, ensuring patients receive follow-up care from their clinic to help prevent readmissions.
For 2022 the work will continue. CCMCN will work to expand out the Data Vault with new dashboards including all payers claims data from CIVIHC and Colorado Immunization Information System data as an example. And CRHC will continue to provide technical assistance for the Rural Connectivity Program with leadership from OeHI and HCFP.
We encourage you to get involved, if you have not already. This funding is available to help you and your patients! Please contact me for more information.
I wish you all a very Happy New Year!
