NAME OF NETWORK  
RWHC Information Technology Network

Name of Grantee
Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
 
Principal Investigator/Project Manager
Louis Wenzlow

Address 880 Independence Lane Sauk City, WI 53583                                  
Phone 608.644.3237  
Fax 608.643.4936
Organizational Website rwhc.com                                  
E-mail lwenzlow@rwhc.com
 
Project Purpose
The Wisconsin CAH network is working to implement a collaborative electronic health record (EHR) environment (initially consisting of a hospital information system and a physician practice EMR system) that is shared by multiple critical access hospitals from a common datacenter and supported by a pooled staff.  The Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative Information Technology Network (RWHC ITN) is the non profit consortium organization that operates the collaborative EHR environment.  CEOs of participant hospitals serve as the ITN Board of Directors; and project leaders from each ITN participant hospital work with ITN staff to align collaborative efforts with facility needs.  The RWHC ITN’s mission is “to provide community hospitals and their affiliates with health information technology (HIT) applications and support services that promote high quality, cost effective healthcare.” 

Outcome Measures/Expectations
Primary ITN goals include: to drive improvements to patient safety and the quality of care and service; increase secure access to healthcare information; increase healthcare cost effectiveness, and eventually provide all Wisconsin CAHs with an integrated, cost-effective option to meet their EHR needs.
 
In working to achieve its goals, the RWHC ITN will provide the following services and benefits:

• Advanced clinical systems such as E-MAR, medication verification through barcoding, inpatient charting, CPOE, physician practice EMR with e-prescribing, and an EHR web portal
• Data exchange capabilities between shared system participants
• Reduced datacenter, hardware, software, implementation, support, and operating costs due to group volume purchasing and a shared data center model
• Improved support quality with a shared HIT staff

Service Area
The initial network participants are located in south central and western Wisconsin, including in Sauk, Dane, Monroe, Vernon, Grant, and Lafayette counties, which are parts of Wisconsin’s second and third congressional districts.  Each of the 4 network participant facilities are located in areas designated as “rural” or “exceptionally rural” per USDA rurality scoring. 

Network Members

Equipment/Vendors or Collaborative Partners
Healthcare Management Systems – HMS, a CCHIT certified inpatient system vendor, will be providing the hardware, software (including advanced clinical systems such as E-MAR, medication verification through barcoding, inpatient charting, CPOE, an EHR web portal, as well as data exchange functionality), and related implementation services for the project.

Medinotes – Medinotes will be providing the physician practice EMR and related implementation services for the project.

PhaseWare – PhaseWare will be providing the web-enabled helpdesk software for the project.  

RWHC – RWHC (to be distinguished from RWHC ITN), a collaborative organization of 32 non-profit Wisconsin hospitals, provided the early planning and startup resources for RWHC ITN; and will be providing ITN shared staffing services.

WORH – The Wisconsin Office of Rural Health has also provided early planning and startup resources for RWHC ITN and serves as a key collaborative partner.

FCC Pilot Program – The FCC Pilot Program will be providing 85% of eligible costs relating to the project telecommunications aspects.

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