NAME OF NETWORK  
Middle Tennessee Rural Health Information Network (MTRHIN)

Name of Grantee       
Tennessee Department of Health, Office of Rural Health      
 
Principal Investigator/Project Manager Angie Allen    
Address  425 5th Ave North Nashville, TN  37247  
Phone (615) 741-5226       
Fax (615)  253-2100    
E-mail angie.allen@state.tn.us      

Project Purpose
MTRHIN will support the two-way sharing of  electronic medical information among three Critical Access Hospitals, (Trousdale Medical Center, Macon County General Hospital, and Riverview Regional Medical Center South) an FQHC (United Neighborhood Health Care) and their tertiary provider (Sumner Regional Medical Center).  HIE software will enable these sites and other local providers to share patient information generated in different systems to enhance patient care.  The project will be constructed in a fashion that will allow for expansion beyond the pilot participants.

Outcome Measures/Expectations

1. Implement an effective health information exchange network among the participating CAHs and the area rural community providers.
2. Develop a system that provides quality patient health information exchange to support patient transfers  and consultations from the rural hospitals and referring physicians to the designated tertiary care facility.
3. Expand the project scope beyond the end of the pilot period to support other regions of the state, to include linkage with existing HIEs along with the Tennessee Department of Health Department Clinic sites and other existing telehealth projects.
4. Participate in the State’s eHealth initiatives and work closely with the Governors eHealth Advisory Council to ensure compliance and compatibility with the State’s master roadmap for promoting electronic health data sharing in Tennessee.

Service Area
The hospitals and their patients reflect the variety of Tennessee’s regions and geography from Appalachia to the Cumberland Plateau to the upper Mississippi Delta.  Health care in the outlying rural areas of the network is limited primarily to small critical access and primary care hospitals and clinics.  Often patients must travel miles to larger facilities for routine tests and treatments provided by facilities in metropolitan areas.  Health disparities impact this population, with high rates of diabetes, asthma, hypertension, cancer and black lung among subpopulations. 
The majority of the counties in the service area have also been designated as federal shortage areas in terms of mental health services, dental care, medical professionals and medically underserved geographical areas and populations in general.

Network Members

Equipment/Vendors or Collaborative Partners
The Community Health Network is in the process of completing a Request for Quote (RFQ) for the acquisition of Health Information Exchange (HIE) software.  This RFQ will be sent to a select list of HIE vendors.  The RFQ responses will then be used to select two HIE vendor finalists for site visits and/or onsite demos with the goal of signing a purchase contract in June, 2008.  

The Tennessee Department of Health has formed a coalition of partners to work on this project.  These partners include the State of Tennessee eHealth Initiative, the Community Health Network (CHN), the State of Tennessee Office of Information Resources, the Tennessee Hospital Association, the Vanderbilt University Center for Better Health, and Qsource (Tennessee’s designated CMS Quality Improvement Organization).

In conjunction with this project, the State of Tennessee has contracted with the Community Health Network (CHN) to purchase, install and host a health information exchange (HIE) solution for sending and receiving electronic health data between the target systems below:

Meditech- used by Sumner Regional, Trousdale and Riverview hospitals
CPSI Healthcare Information and Patient Care System – used by Macon County General Hospital
QS Technologies Patient Tracking Billing System – used by the Tennessee Department of Health
NextGen Ambulatory System – used by CHN (Community Health Network) member clinics

In addition, CHN will be working with the State of Tennessee for providing high speed broadband access to the participating healthcare providers that will include utilization of funds from a FCC Telehealth grant.

Go to: Top | HRSA | HHS | Disclaimer | Accessibility | Privacy