CHT launches the E-Healthy Savannah Project (Press Release)
September 12, 2008
Gingrich launches the E-Healthy Savannah Project
Sept. 12, 2008
For immediate release
Savannah now begins a quest to get patients, physicians, hospitals, clinics and pharmacies connected without paper by 2012.
“If this community collectively decided to become completely paperless, the amount you would save in lives and money would be breathtaking,” former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said in Savannah Thursday.
Gingrich spoke to more than 150 people about the E-Healthy Savannah Project, which will implement health information technology across Savannah and Chatham County. Gingrich is the founder of the Center for Health Transformation, which will offer resources and expertise to the Savannah effort.
When completed physicians will send prescriptions to pharmacies electronically and patients will have electronic medical records that can be accessed by any doctor, clinic or emergency department.
The event at Armstrong Atlantic State University was hosted by the Savannah Business Group and the Chatham County Safety Net Planning Council, who are teaming up to implement health information technology projects locally.
Health information technology is an umbrella term covering three key initiatives.
• Electronic prescribing: Doctors send prescriptions to pharmacies electronically to eliminate errors and fraud. Medication errors cause 1.5 million preventable injuries and 7,000 avoidable deaths each year, according to the Institute of Medicine.
• Electronic health records: A computerized patient medical file and history. This helps physicians make more informed and faster diagnoses.
• Health Information Exchange: A system that allows a patient’s health record to be viewed securely by physicians wherever the patient is being treated.
The ultimate goal of health information technology is the efficient and error-free delivery of healthcare.
Also speaking at the event were Gary Rost, executive director of the Savannah Business Group; Diane Z. Weems, MD, Chief Medical Officer for the Coastal Health District/Chatham County Health Department and Chair of the Chatham County Safety Net Planning Council; Charles D. Kennedy MD, Vice President Health Information Technology, WellPoint Inc.; James R. Morrow, MD, VP of North Fulton Family Medicine and Chairman of the Georgia Electronic Health Record Partnership; and Mark LaBorde, President of Aetna, Southeast Region.
Adoption of this plan is based on two projects. The Georgia Department of Community Health in November awarded the Safety Net a $272,000 grant to create an infrastructure for electronic health systems.
The Safety Net and the Savannah Business Group are also facilitating a DCH Electronic Health Records Demonstration Project that helps physicians tap into Medicare funds to cover costs for this technology.
Dr. Morrow said the demonstration project is seeking 100 small, primary care physician offices to implement the technology. Up to $25,000 per practice is available.
“You can count on us coming to Savannah to try to recruit practices,” he said.
How this began:
In August of 2006, President Bush signed an Executive Order that was aimed at promoting quality and efficient health care in all federal government administered or sponsored health care programs.
From this order, the Department of Health and Human Services created their Value Driven Health Care Initiative. The core feature of this initiative was the Four Cornerstones:
– Interoperable Health Information Technology
– Measure and Publish Quality Information
– Measure and Publish Price Information
– Promote Quality and Efficiency of Care
In October of 2006, Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue signed an Executive Order creating the Health Information Technology and Transparency Advisory Board. The key points that the Advisory Board was directed to work on are:
• Improve patient safety
• Improve healthcare quality
• Enable population threat detection
• Better inform and empower health care consumers
• Ensure care providers will have the information necessary to make informed decisions
• Better understand health care costs
To initiate this vision in Georgia, the Department of Community Health established community pilot grants for the creation of local health information exchanges. Savannah applied for and was accepted as a pilot site.
