NAME OF NETWORK: North Dakota CAH HIT Network

Name of Grantee: Center for Rural Health, University of North Dakota 

Principal Investigator:
Marlene Miller, Flex Program Director                 
701-777-4499
marlenemiller@medicine.nodak.edu

Principal Investigator:
Lynette Dickson, SORH Program Director           
701-777-6049
ldickson@medicine.nodak.edu
 
Address:
501 N Columbia Rd. Stop 9037 Grand Forks, North Dakota 58202-9037
Phone: 701-777-3848               
Fax: 701-777-6779                    
Organizational Website: http://ruralhealth.und.edu/                   
E-mail: (see above)                     

Project Description:  The overall project goal is to facilitate the exchange of health information by implementing EMR along the continuum of care that is patient-centered, facilitating patient safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care services.  Three ND Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs), (Northwood Deaconess Health Center, Northwood; Pembina County Memorial, Cavalier; First Care Health Center, Park River), one tertiary(Altru, Grand Forks) referral hospital, and ancillary providers (Valley Community Health Centers, Northwood and Larimore; Wedgwood Manor, Cavalier and First Care Rural Health Clinic, Park River) will serve as the network model in this pilot project. 

Service Area The intent of the project is to eventually impact a regional network in North Dakota and Minnesota consisting of 18 CAHs, 1 rural non-CAH, 1 tertiary facility and 1 mental health agency. The immediate network participants have approximately 3,100 common patient encounters each year.  Eventually, the regional impact will cover 20,000 square miles serving a population of over 207,000 residents in 17 counties.

Need:  North Dakota has 34 CAHs, none of which is involved in an HIT network with its tertiary.  Statewide data indicates that CAHs are supportive of HIT; however, they struggle with resource development and allocation.  For example, only 16% of ND CAHs have a formal HIT plan; yet, 68% are starting to budget for HIT.  In addition, 89% do not use EMRs. 

Outcome Measures/Expectations:
1) Complete planning process and implementing of EMR for first CAH.
2) Orchestrate the exchange of health information along the continuum of care.
3) Use lessons learned from each facility to improve the implementation process of EMR.
4) Improve efficiencies in the health care system through performance management.  
5) Improve efficiencies through the integration of clinical quality improvement measures to facilitate better health outcomes for rural residents. 

Network Members

Equipment/Vendors: Critical Access Hospitals – Two have selected Dairyland; one American Healthnet

Health Information Exchange – no vendor selected at this time.
They are considering Orion Health Systems, Intersystems (Clinical Workstation – a system already in place at the tertiary facility however it is not being used by two of the three CAHs within this project and needs enhancement to facilitate two-way exchange of information).

Collaborative Partners:
North Dakota Healthcare Review (Quality Improvement Organization)
North Region Health Alliance
Rural Health Information Technology, Inc.

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