Health IT is an important part of the Louisiana Healthcare Redesign Collaborative's proposal to revamp health care delivery and financing in the state, Bio-IT World reports.
The proposal, which still needs HHS approval, calls for using IT to connect medical homes -- primary care physicians affiliated with a network of hospitals, specialists and other providers -- using communitywide electronic health records.
Hurricane Katrina offered the state "an opportunity to take a leap forward in the health IT work we were already doing," Dr. Roxane Townsend, deputy secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, said, adding that the aftermath of the hurricane "encouraged collaboration."
A secure Web site, katrinahealth.org, was set up directly following the hurricane to store residents' medication histories, Bio-IT World reports. An immunization registry and an electronic disease surveillance registry also were created.
The Louisiana Health Information Exchange in nine months has accomplished through collaboration "what would have normally taken two to five years," Townsend said. In addition, several community initiatives in New Orleans aimed at developing regional health information organizations and encouraging EHR adoption have been established (Atoji, Bio-IT World, 1/18).