NEWS RELEASE

 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                  

November 5, 2007                                                                                         

CONTACT:

Lisa Marie Shekell

404-463-5304

 

Chatham County Safety Net Planning Council, Inc. Receives $272,588 Health Information Exchange Grant

 

ATLANTA – Today at the monthly meeting of the Health Information Technology and Transparency (HITT) Board, Dr. Rhonda Medows, Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Community Health (DCH), announced the awardees of $853,088 in health information exchange (HIE) grants.  Chatham County Safety Net Planning Council, Inc. was one of four partnerships to receive grant money to help foster the development of HIE, electronic prescribing, and/or adoption of electronic medical records across Georgia. 

 

“Through their proposals, the Georgia HIE Grant awardees exemplified the principles and strategies of health information technology and exchange,” said Dr. Medows.  “The four health partnerships will drive improvements in health care quality, safety and efficiency.”

 

Chatham County Safety Net Planning Council, Inc. will use the grant to accomplish the main goal of establishing a community HIE.  The HIE will connect all community safety net health care providers, provide a secure connection for sharing patient information, enhance delivery of quality care, improve the effectiveness of health care providers and encourage patient participation in their health care.

 

The Georgia HIE grantees aim to improve access to comprehensive patient health information created by multiple providers and to decrease prescription errors linked to illegible handwriting or insufficient information.  The awardees will at least match the funds given to them by the state.

 

On October 17, 2006, Governor Sonny Perdue signed an Executive Order creating the HITT Board to advise DCH on the best practices for encouraging the use of electronic health records and establishing a statewide strategy to enable health information to be readily available and transparent.  The announcement of the Georgia HIE Grants is based on recommendations from the HITT Advisory Board. 

 

For more information about the Georgia HITT Initiative, visit www.dch.georgia.gov. 

 

Pictured from left to right:

Dr. Rhonda Medows, Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Community Health; Dr. Diane Z. Weems, MD, chair of the Chatham County Safety Net Planning Council, Inc.; Dr. Winston Price, chair of the Health Information Technology and Transparency (HITT) Board; Robert Bush, Privacy Advocate Member of the HITT Board; and Denise Williams, project manager for the HITT initiatives.

 

 

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