CHT, in conjunction with the Savannah Business Group, launched the e-Healthy Savannah Project. The purpose of the project is to accelerate the adoption of e-prescribing and HIT solutions among healthcare professionals in the greater Savannah area.

The day started with a meet and greet between CHT founder Newt Gingrich and over 80 business and community leaders over lunch. CHT heard from these leaders about the state of health and healthcare in Georgia’s third largest city, Savannah and their desire to expand HIT throughout the medical community. Gary Rost, Executive Director of the Savannah Business Group, did a great job of bringing the business community and key players in the healthcare community together for this event. Tom Groom of SureScripts-RxHub provided a statistical snapshot of Georgia and Savannah in terms of the numbers of e-prescription and benchmarked e-prescribing adoption. This benchmark will very useful to demonstrate the effectiveness and impact of the CHT-SBG e-Healthy Savannah Project.  Speaker Gingrich provided remarks about the importance of community involvement and local engagement in order to change the dynamics of health and healthcare in Savannah. Newt also said that he was very impressed with the community’s support for the collaboration between SBG and CHT.

After the community leaders lunch, a large meeting of almost 200 business, civic, community, and healthcare leaders including representatives of the SBG, the local chamber of commerce, mayor’s office, state representatives, physicians, pharmacists and both of the hospitals. The launch of the e-Healthy Savannah Project included presentations by:

• Gary Rost who provided an excellent overview of health information technology and its importance on health transformation;
• Diane Weems, MD, Chief Medical Officer for the Coastal Health District/Chatham County Health Department and Chair of the Chatham County Safety Net Planning Council, who discussed DCH’s role in assisting with the implementation of HIT strategies in the Savannah area and the public health community’s commitment to implementing integrated HIT solutions;
• Charles Kennedy, MD, Vice President Health Information Technology of WellPoint Inc., who demonstrated WellPoint’s historic support of e-prescribing and HIT activities and the importance of e-prescribing and HIT as a way to significant improve pateint safety and patient outcomes;
• Jim Morrow, MD, VP of North Fulton Family Medicine and Chairman of the Georgia Electronic Health Record Partnership, discussed how e-prescribing and HIT have had a positive impact on his primary care medical practice; he shared how his patients love the advanced technology; how his practice has decreased costs and improved efficiencies through HIT; and the role of the Georgia Electronic Health Record Partnership in recruiting physicians for the CMS demonstration project;
• Mark LaBorde, President of the Southeast Region for Aetna, talked about Aetna’s on-going commitment to HIT adoption and their historic support of e-prescribing; he also introduced Speaker Gingrich.

All of the speakers helped to create a sense if urgency in Savannah around patient safety, e-prescribing and HIT adoption. The Savannah community appears ready to continue to implement the building blocks necessary to become a 21st century intelligent healthy community.

Speaker Gingrich delivered a targeted keynote address which was entitled “Building a 21st Century Intelligent Healthy Community through e-Prescribing and HIT solutions.” By launching the e-Healthy Savannah Project, Newt discussed the opportunity for real change in Savannah by increasing the numbers of physicians who used e-prescribing and HIT. He stressed the need for the medical community to fully embrace HIT as a way to demonstratively reduce medication errors, improve patient outcomes, allow for continuous medical improvement and reduce healthcare costs.
After Newt’s presentation, all of the speakers were invited to participate in a press avail. Two television stations and several print reporters attended the event.

CHT wants to thank Gary Rost and his staff for their significant contributions for making the day a tremendous success. CHT also appreciates Aetna for their financial support of the launch of the e-Healthy Savannah Project. And, finally, we are thankful for the support of CHT members as well as many of the members of CHT e-prescribing working group, many of whom were in attendance for this exciting event.

CHT is energized and excited about the possibilities for the e-Healthy Savannah Project.  We look forward to working closely with the Savannah Business Group and the entire Savannah medical community as we implement specific strategies aimed at increasing the numbers of physicians who implement e-prescribing and HIT solutions.

Project Director Wayne Oliver and Newt speak with State Representative Buddy Carter (R-Pooler) who is a community pharmacist and owner of three independent pharmacies in the greater Savannah area.

Jim Morrow MD, a family physician and Chairman of the Georgia Electronic Health Record Partnership, shared his experience with his electronic medical record system which contains an e-prescribing program. Dr. Morrow indicated that implementing an EMR system has had a positive impact both on his practice and for his patients.