Villagomez said the competitive grant awarded by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration will enable healthcare providers in the CNMI, including the Tinian and Rota health centers, to use the Resource and Patient Management System and the Electronic Health Record System.
He said the grant application was submitted by the Commonwealth Health Center three months ago.
The grant, he added, “will help reduce the cost and burden of individual healthcare providers who have to procure and implement an [Electronic Health Record System] on their own.”
It will also enable the CNMI to readily share data to improve patient safety and care and help Medicare and Medicaid providers meet “meaningful use” incentives since the Resource and Patient Management System is a certified electronic health record.
Villagomez said aside from the FY 2012 funding, the grantor also recommended future annual support in the same amount for FY’s 2013 and 2014.
Using the system, other healthcare providers on the islands will share the medical records for common patients in accordance with federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act requirements.
For her part, acting Deputy Public Health Secretary for Hospital Administration Esther Muna informed healthcare providers that the purpose of “network development” is to institutionalize network relationships with CHC, “which will enable sharing of resources to improve healthcare delivery and efficiency.”
Muna, who is also Public Health’s health information technology coordinator, said CHC specifically proposed to share the use of the electronic health records with interested and eligible healthcare providers.
She has notified all healthcare partners of this development and is planning to hold a health information technology stakeholders’ meeting later this month.
