MDH's Office of Rural Health and Primary Care will distribute the funds to the Lac qui Parle Health Network to help them implement electronic health records. The network consists of Johnson Memorial Hospital in Dawson, Appleton Area Health Services, and Madison Lutheran Home, all Critical Access Hospitals in Minnesota.
"This funding will help us build a system for exchanging health records electronically," said Mark Roisen, director of the Lac qui Parle Health Network. "With electronic health records, we'll be able to provide care more efficiently and safely to our patients."
Similar grants were made to 15 other state rural health offices to help communities with Critical Access Hospitals exchange health information throughout the continuum of care. This allows patients to have their clinical information available to providers as they move from clinic or emergency services to the hospital to home health or nursing home care.
Expansion of health information technology is a goal of policy makers at federal and state levels as a means to improve health care delivery, patient safety, quality and efficiency. Federal officials concentrated significant grant funding on selected small rural communities to increase the likelihood of long-term success and to serve as models for other areas of the state and the nation. The model developed by Lac qui Parle Health Network and similar projects around the country will help other rural communities learn how to use health information technology to improve quality and safety.
Beginning in 2004, the Minnesota e-Health Initiative began exploring ways to expand health information technology in Minnesota. Lac qui Parle used $40,000 in planning funds received under a 2006 Minnesota e-health grant program to begin a planning process to be ready to respond to the HRSA grant opportunity.
