Home > Recent HIE Clients

West Virginia Health Information Network (WVHIN)—SFT worked with the WVHIN Board of Directors to develop a strategic and business plan including an HIE pathway, an alignment of multiple HIE/HIT initiatives, a financial sustainability model, a stakeholder outreach approach, and a rollout plan. West Virginia is unique because of its mix of medium-size and rural communities, the strength of its stakeholder base, and its many HIE/HIT initiatives. With the advent of HITECH Act, WVHIN serves as the state HIE through the WV Department of Health and Human Resources, the state designated HIE entity. SFT has been instrumental in drafting the content of the business plan for the Office of National Coordinator. Elements of outreach include greater alignment with Medicaid, public health, regional extension centers, telehealth, and other state and federal agencies and initiatives. WVHIN is working directly with Medicaid to develop a joint vision for data exchange that maximizes Medicaid and WVHIN funding opportunities. SFT has provided assistance in doing an RFP vendor selection process that includes many of the new HITECH Act requirements such as applications that facilitate Meaningful Use incentive payments to hospitals and physicians; alignment with new privacy and security requirements; and many standards and requirements from multiple state and federal agencies.

The Colorado Health Foundation (TCHF)—TCHF has determined that statewide HIE formation is a priority for the foundation. Following the development of a strategic plan for the Colorado Regional Health Organization (CORHIO), SFT began working with TCHF to help the foundation influence the development of an effective multi-organization statewide healthcare delivery system by aligning organization HIT/HIE strategies with the statewide HIE plans. Key areas of focus have included working with telehealth, rural outreach, quality initiatives, and the regional and state-level HIEs including Quality Health Network (QHN) and CORHIO.

healthLINC, Bloomington, Indiana—healthLINC HIE is in an urban/rural setting between Indianapolis and Cincinnati. The SFT consulting team helped stakeholders in the region develop a communitywide electronic strategy and business plan resulting in the formation of healthLINC to serve physicians, other providers, and the hospital system. healthLINC has actively engaged physicians and with their help implemented clinical messaging, inquiry, ePrescribing, and public health alerts. SFT consultants played a notable role in healthLINC becoming one of the first HIEs in the country to outsource its HIE infrastructure to another HIE (HealthBridge). In December 2008, healthLINC received a national award from eHealth Initiative along with HealthBridge for developing a small HIE that is both affordable and sustainable. Since then, healthLINC has been an important catalyst for three-way data exchange across state lines among healthLINC, HealthBridge in Ohio and the Indiana Health Information Exchange in Indianapolis demonstrating the potential of the National Health Information Network.

Colorado Clinical Guidelines Collaborative (CCGC)—SFT consultants helped CCGC (also known as TeamHealthWorks) update its strategic plan because of dramatic changes in national and state forces for healthcare transformation and new opportunities with HIEs. CCGC facilitates the implementation of “systems change” by working at the practice, community, and healthcare system levels. Priority areas include workflow redesign and transformation for practices using electronic tools and guidelines and the establishment of data exchange with HIEs. Current programs include IPIP and Patient Centered Medical Home.

Bronx RHIO—SFT consultants worked with the Bronx RHIO Board and community leaders to develop the preliminary stages of a vision and plan for the Bronx RHIO in the context of the HITECH Act. The Bronx has a high Medicaid and uninsured population and high motivation to transform healthcare delivery. The key planning questions were: What is the vision for healthcare in the Bronx in 5 years and what is the role of the Bronx RHIO in achieving this vision? The community drafted a vision that embraced the goals of becoming an accountable care community; redesigning care delivery across organizations; addressing disparities; improving quality and safety; addressing population health; and more. Given the scope of the goals, the planning group envisioned the Bronx RHIO as a facilitator and convener, but not the driver of these initiatives. This framing enabled the Bronx RHIO to create a multiyear HIE road map that can align with the community initiatives bringing additional functionality to the RHIO as needed.

Colorado Telehealth Network (CTN)—CTN has been successful in building statewide buy-in from potential participating organizations to increase broadband access in the state. CTN has the capability to capitalize on a considerable funding opportunity from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. With this opportunity, SFT consultants facilitated planning with CTN to discuss the best focus for CTN, consider a sustainability model, and align the entity with CORHIO (the state-level HIE), individual providers, the newly forming Regional Extension Center (REC), and others.

Accelerated Community HIE Planning—Since 2009, with the advent of the HITECH Act, communities have greater pressure to move quickly to establish HIEs to take advantage of funding opportunities and better align with state-level HIEs. In response to this, SFT developed rapid planning processes to do in one day what had been previously accomplished over a period of months. Communities that have engaged in accelerated planning initiatives include, among others, NEPAHIE (Scranton, Pennsylvania); NEOHIE (Youngstown, Ohio); and WCOHIE (Lima, Ohio). Keys to success included doing more upfront planning with key leadership; conducting multiple meetings in one day with executives, leadership, and physicians; starting the day with a big vision; and ending the day with specific action steps and working draft plans.

Quality of Life Indianapolis—SFT worked with the Marion County Health Department (Indiana), the Polis Center of Indiana University, and three other Centers from Indiana University in implementing the Indianapolis Quality of Life site, www.inqualityoflife.org. SFT was instrumental in conceptualizing and launching this project with public health leadership. This site is unique in the country because it is a consumer friendly tool that brings multiple regional, statewide, and national databases to this site for easy access by engaged citizens around community priorities. One unique feature is Healthy Communities Institute’s Promising Practices database highlighting initiatives with demonstrated successes. Although the initial site focuses on public health, future topic areas will include economic development, education, built and natural environment, arts, housing, and more.

State of Michigan, Department of Health and Human Resources—Members of the SFT team have joined the statewide effort to develop the state-designated HIE strategic and operational plans coordinated through the federal Office of the National Coordinator. The SFT role is to develop Michigan’s financial sustainability strategy building on previous efforts and to provide financial sustainability models to track and revise the funding mechanisms ensuring sustainable revenues. The key focus is aligning the state-level capabilities and services of Michigan’s planned statewide shared services network with the capabilities and services of the community and regional HIEs in the various areas of the state.

Michigan Health Information Network (MiHIN)—SFT worked with the MiHIN Resource Center to provide training and consulting support to the seven medical trading areas in Michigan that received state funding grants to establish an HIE in each region. Michigan is a geographically large state with unique geographic areas. Some areas are heavily rural, some are heavily urban, and some are a mix of both. One of the HIEs, Capital Area RHIO in Lansing, has launched and others are in the planning stages. Also, SFT developed a training program for Financial Sustainability for HIEs that included developing value propositions, doing ROI analyses, and developing innovative revenue models that use multiple fee structures to achieve sustainability. SFT has also provided guidance on financial sustainability options to one of the key statewide stakeholder groups.

Colorado Regional Health Information Network (CORHIO)—CORHIO was one of six HIEs in the country to receive a multimillion dollar 5-year grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in 2004 to develop an HIE. In anticipation of the end of the 5-year grant period, SFT worked with CORHIO to develop a Stage 2 business plan that included expanding its reach statewide, developing an HIE road map, organizing around medical referral regions, validating its governance role as state-level convener/collaborator, and setting the stage for an expanded funding model to accommodate growth. CORHIO has now been designated as the state-level HIE working with the Office of the National Coordinator.

HealthBridge Regional Health Information Exchange, Cincinnati, Ohio—HealthBridge, one of the original financially successful health information networks in the country, serves five hospital networks with 24 hospitals and more than 5,500 physicians. Its reach includes Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and beyond. The consulting team has provided support to HealthBridge for many years. SFT first worked with HealthBridge’s management and board of directors to build support within the five participating hospital systems to expand communitywide collaborative strategies beyond the original core services. Subsequently, the SFT team worked with HealthBridge in providing leadership development of a new staffing plan to support the growth strategies. SFT consultants also facilitated the HealthBridge Board of Directors’ ARRA Strategic Planning Retreat that identified opportunities and needs resulting from the HITECH Act for its community, its customers, and itself. Technical design and project management services were also provided by SFT consultants in the design and development of HealthBridge’s third generation provider portal.

New Hampshire Citizens Health Initiative (NHCHI)—SFT consultants joined a consulting team to facilitate discussions with a multistakeholder group to develop recommendations around HIT and HIE for the Governor. Areas of interest were finding common ground between rural and urban areas; balancing needs of providers having few versus many resources; addressing priorities of providers with high versus low electronic adoption; and engaging the consumer, health plans, and employers in meaningful ways. This planning effort was the foundation for the next stage of strategic and operational planning through the Office of the National Coordinator and the HITECH Act.

Pennsylvania HIE (PA-HIE)—SFT consultants worked with the PA-HIE Advisory Board to do a feasibility study of the largest provider, health plan, and employer institutions to determine group readiness to establish an HIE in the Harrisburg region. SFT also worked with the physician community to identify physician leaders and to obtain physician buy-in for developing a business plan and participating in the HIE. These steps precede the actual development of the business plan and implementation.

Public Health Informatics Institute—SFT assisted the Public Health Informatics Institute, along with the Indiana State Department of Health, in its initiative to develop an interactive model for documenting the savings that can be gained for a state health department by making its major reporting systems with the county health departments electronic.

Capital Area RHIO, Lansing, Michigan (CARHIO)—SFT consultants worked with Capital Area Health Alliance and Capital Area RHIO to serve as the neutral party to negotiate the multistakeholder fee structure. In this role, SFT worked with each of the stakeholders to build a value proposition and do an ROI analysis and then worked with them collectively to develop a revenue model that is fair and reasonable within and across stakeholder groups (health systems, physicians, payers, researchers, and others). SFT project consultants have also assisted with privacy and security policies, physician outreach, physician practice implementation, and stakeholder engagement.

Dallas County Medical Society (DCMS)—The Dallas County Medical Society has been a leader in the Dallas-Fort Worth North Texas area in facilitating the creation of a Health Information Exchange. This area is the 4th largest metroplex in the country. SFT consultants were hired to engage potential participants and write the Business and Financial Plan for this effort. Engaged participants include more than 7,500 physicians from DCMS among other physicians in surrounding medical societies; more than 50 hospitals from five major health systems; the Hospital Council; and other providers and business groups. Plans are for this initiative to launch through Project Access Dallas.

Collaborating Communities Health Information Exchange, Springfield, Ohio (CCHIE)—SFT assisted this community to move quickly from idea to implementation helping the community organize a physician-centric HIE with a multistakeholder community board. Unique features of this HIE included using a multiple phase Road Map starting with clinical messaging; hiring an informaticist to more quickly improve cross-community workflow processes for physicians, and outsourcing the technology infrastructure to HealthBridge to take advantage of economies of scale. An SFT consultant served as the Interim Executive Director during CCHIE's formative period.

Indiana State Department of Health, Indiana Health Information Exchange, and Regenstrief Institute—SFT consultants facilitated a statewide electronic health strategic planning process for public health involving Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH), six Indiana Public Health Departments, Indiana Health Information Exchange, and Regenstrief Institute. The purpose of the planning was to identify actions for increasing the two-way electronic exchange of data across the state. The plan addressed electronically collecting reportable data from healthcare providers, sending electronic alerts from public health to providers, and increasing electronic utilization by physician practices. The statewide public health system utilizes the technology and research resources of Regenstrief Institute and Indiana Health Information Exchange.

Maryland Health Care Commission (MHCC)—SFT consultants worked with MHCC to plan for and facilitate a series of privacy and security focus groups with stakeholder groups (payers, hospitals, labs, and physicians) to identify key issues that must be addressed to ensure the success of an HIE. The results of the focus groups were input for a statewide HIE strategy on privacy and security. Subsequently, SFT consultants worked with the MHCC on several projects including development of its grant application for HIE funding; development of design specifications for a statewide health information exchange; review and harmonization of two planning reports/projects and assessment of which project best met the design specifications; lead of a Health Information and Security Collaborative consumer and provider education and outreach project; and evaluation of state HIE RFP responses for the State Health Care Commission.

Delaware Health Information Network, Delaware (DHIN)—SFT consultants joined a consulting team serving the state of Delaware in developing a statewide plan for a health information utility serving all the three medical referral regions in the state. The effort involved a broad base of stakeholders including physicians, hospital systems, other providers, public health, health plans, consumers, state government, and academia. The SFT team provided to the overall planning team targeted expertise in business strategy, functional requirements unique to an HIE, and stakeholder-based organizational structures. In addition to business and functional support, the SFT team drafted the Technical Assessment, provided Architectural Design Recommendations, and co-authored the Request for Proposal.

West Michigan Information Infrastructure in coordination with Spectrum Health, Grand Rapids, Michigan—The SFT consulting team worked with Spectrum Health to develop a business plan for a health information exchange serving the hospital system and participating physician practices. Elements of the plan include establishing EMR products for both large and small practices, clarifying role relations between the practices and hospital in the new entity, establishing guidelines for data ownership and usage, and developing a financially viable business model for both the hospital and the practices.

Michiana Health Information Network (MHIN) and the Provider Communities, South Bend, Indiana—As consultants to one of the earliest successful health information networks in the country, SFT helped the physician community and other healthcare stakeholders develop a second stage plan to expand the information network to all providers and to gain approval of a physician migration plan to increase significantly the electronic adoption rate by the practices. The initiative included more than 550 physicians, two hospital systems, the major laboratory, and MHIN. The physicians in this community raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to show support for the growth of this effort.

ICareConnect, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana (ICC) and Indiana Health Information Exchange (IHIE)—Over a 3-year period, SFT worked with physician leaders, Health & Hospital Corporation of Marion County, Marion County Health Department, major hospital networks, and other community leaders to establish and fund a community HIE, ICareConnect. During that period, SFT staffed the Interim Executive Director and Community Project Lead positions. In 2004, ICC joined Regenstrief Institute and BioCrossroads to launch Indiana Health Information Exchange, now one of the largest HIEs in the country serving patients in Indiana, Chicago, and surrounding states. SFT continues to work with multistakeholder HIE/HIT initiatives in the region.