ONC Beacon Communities Lead the Charge
Across the nation, in communities large and small, health information technology (health IT) innovators are boldly leading the way toward the adoption and meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs). Yesterday, we awarded $220 million in Beacon Community cooperative agreements to 15 trailblazing community consortiums that will demonstrate how the meaningful use of electronic health records can serve as a critical foundation for achieving measurable improvement in the quality and efficiency of health care in the United States.
Health care providers often suggest that health IT is challenging to implement, and that certain types of communities are better prepared (and funded) to reap its benefits.
The 15 Beacon Communities named today, however, demonstrate the significant diversity among those who have been successful in implementing and using health IT. The areas of diversity represented in the consortiums receiving grants include:
- Geographic – Beacon Communities are located from coast to coast and beyond to Hawaii
- Population Density – Beacon Communities serve both urban and rural populations
- Populations – Beacon programs address health disparities among minority populations, including Native American, African American, and Hispanic, among others
Equally important, these communities are committed to demonstrating tangible outcomes:
- Individual Health Outcomes – Beacon Communities’ outcomes encompass a variety of disease states and treatment approaches, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
- Population Health outcomes – Beacon Communities target varying dimensions of population and public health, from improved immunization and cancer screening rates, to innovations for public health surveillance
Additionally, the Beacon Community Program demonstrates robust collaboration among Federal agencies. Two of the grantees seek to improve Veterans’ care by leveraging the Department of Defense’s and Department of Veteran Affairs’ Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record (VLER) program for active duty, Guard and Reserve, retired military personnel, and eligible separated Veterans.
These diverse partners will provide unique insights into best practices that can be applied to similar communities nationwide, as they strive to build a health IT infrastructure as a critical foundation for health system improvement. In doing so, the Beacon Community program will support the nationwide adoption of health IT by 2015.
I congratulate the Beacon Community awardees and am confident the Beacon Communities will succeed in demonstrating the promise of health IT and facilitating other communities’ adoption and meaningful use of technology.
–David Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.P. – National Coordinator for Health Information Technology
Would you provide detail on where these communities are?
What are the communities selected for the BEACON grant awards?
Here’s a short cut to ONC Beacon page and table:
http://tinyurl.com/246ur83
HHS Press Release with communities, amounts and population health goals:
http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2010pres/05/20100504a.html
Meanwhile, here’s the list.
Beacon Community Awardee and Funding Amount
Community Services Council of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK $12,043,948
Delta Health Alliance, Inc., Stoneville, MS $14,666,156
Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, Brewer, ME $12,749,740
Geisinger Clinic, Danville, PA $16,069,110
HealthInsight, Salt Lake City, UT $15,790,181
Indiana Health Information Exchange, INC., Indianapolis, IN $16,008,431
Inland Northwest Health Services, Spokane, WA $15,702,479
Louisiana Public Health Institute, New Orleans, LA $13,525,434
Mayo Clinic Rochester, d/b/a Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN $12,284,770
Rhode Island Quality Institute, Providence, RI $15,914,787
Rocky Mountain Health Maintenance Organization, Grand Junction, CO $11,878,279
Southern Piedmont Community Care Plan, Inc., Concord, NC $15,907,622
The Regents of the University of California at San Diego, San Diego, CA $15,275,115
University of Hawaii at Hilo, Hilo, HI $16,091,390
Western New York Clinical Information Exchange, Inc., Buffalo, NY $16,092,485
I hope selected communities deserve awards. It’s huge funding in this tough times…
2015 seems a long way off is funding in place for communities other than those mentioned?
Is the budget in place to expand the Beacon communities by 2015?
I congratulate the Beacon Community awardees and am confident the Beacon Communities will succeed in demonstrating.Thanks for sharing information.
As a rural area that did not get funded it would be great to see more funding to establish these “communities of practice”. Regardless of initial funding, we are proceeding with one of our own, although small in comparison to the urban centers, we are hoping to cover at least half of our state. Perhaps funding can be obtained afterward?
Keep it coming!!!
This “Health care providers often suggest that health IT is challenging to implement” frustrates me. I can’t believe that there are people willing to stand in the way of progress because it makes their jobs more difficult or they have to learn something new.
This has to be the way to go for all health services, too many of which are struggling with antiquated, unreliable computer systems and/or entirely inefficient paper-based systems.
does anyone think that small portable electronics like the ipad will become common for a centralized medical information center?
I’d love to see them work with the Apple iPad to help increase their technology capabilities. As more devices become available it is very important for us to find new ways to help people while using them.