Vermont's state-run health information organization, called Vermont Information Technology Leaders, on Monday issued a plan to achieve statewide electronic health record adoption by 2014, in accordance with President Bush's goal for the country, Government Health IT reports.
The 140-page report focuses mostly on processes rather than specific projects and calls for a health data exchange infrastructure that can support central data repositories and retrieve data from distributed nodes on the network. The report proposes an incremental approach to building the system.
The report says the state should spend at least $1 million annually on the health data exchange while using alternative sources of revenue, including transaction fees, federal funds and private contributions.
VITL President Greg Farnum did not disclose a specific price for Vermont's health data exchange program, but the plan estimates that operating costs will be about $3 million annually.
The report also detailed 40 guiding principles for launching health IT programs and lists of core technical standards that ensure data and communication systems are interoperable, Government Health IT reports.
VITL has received $2.1 million in state funding over three years and has launched two pilot projects.
One pilot project delivers patient medication histories to emergency department physicians in Rutland, Vt., and St. Johnsbury, Vt., while the other pilot project later this year will roll out an online chronic care support system.
The state organization also wants to fund another $1 million pilot project that would provide EHR systems to 12 physicians in low-income and underserved areas. Officials added that 300 Vermont physicians and clinics may need assistance launching and installing EHR systems, which would cost the state $24.7 million, Government Health IT reports (Ferris, Government Health IT, 7/30).
The plan was developed over the past seven months by a workgroup of more than 30 representatives from various stakeholders and facilitated by HLN Consulting (VITL press release, 7/30).