NAME OF NETWORK  
Lac qui Parle Health Network

Name of Grantee         
Minnesota Department of Health/Office of Rural Health and Primary Care

Principal Investigator/Project Manager     
Mark Schoenbaum

Address PO Box 64882 St. Paul, MN 55164-0882           
Phone 651.201-3859
Fax 651-201-3830
Organizational Website http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/orhpc/ 
E-mail mark.schoenbaum@state.mn.us  

Project Purpose
The Lac qui Parle Health Network (LqPHN) project goal is to implement a shared electronic health record (EHR) among three critical access hospitals in the communities of Madison, Dawson, and Appleton, Minnesota. The Lac qui Parle Health Network, an incorporated non-profit organization, has a strong history of collaboration in areas of physician recruitment, shared staffing, and training that forms the foundation for this project. Each facility represents a full service community health care delivery system, including clinic, hospital, long term care, and emergency medical services, and the EHR project reflects the breadth of services.  Hospital leadership, strong project teams, and outside assistance from experts will ensure that collaborative efforts meet individual provider, facility and community needs.  A common EHR product, a shared data storage and retrieval, and shared IT staff will provide leverage, create efficiencies, and support long term success.

Outcome Measures/Expectations
The Lac qui Parle Health Network CAH HIT Implementation project is driven, ultimately, by goals of providing high quality care and improving patient outcomes as the guiding principles.  To that end, the following project goals and timelines have been identified, and measures developed to assess progress in achieving those goals:

1. Completion of collaborative long range health information technology strategic plan, including change management strategies and verification of organizational readiness.
2. Selection of EHR vendor/product, including vendor selection process, RFP development, and contract negotiation and approval.
3. Implementation, including kick-off, application design, infrastructure build, testing, and training.
4. Development of patient quality of care measurement through a) data collection and analysis of patient primary and secondary data, focusing on 5 performance indicators for heart failure, pneumonia, diabetes, cardiovascular care, and adverse events, and b) participation in Hospital Compare.

Service Area
LqPHN facilities serve residents of Swift, and Lac qui Parle counties, and are located in the west central part of Minnesota’s large 8th Congressional District.  Each of the three network facilities are located in areas designated as “rural” or “exceptionally rural” per USDA rurality scoring. 

Network Members

Equipment/Vendors or Collaborative Partners
Equipment/vendors: Integrated solutions TBD (currently considering Dairyland, HMS/Medinotes, and CPSI.

Stratis Health: Minnesota’s QIO is a contracted partner, assisting LqPHN with final organizational planning and readiness, needs identification, communications, process mapping, RFP development and analysis, contract negotiation, implementation preparation, training, optimization, and quality measures.

Charles River Consultants is a contracted partner, assisting LqPHN with the RFP cost spreadsheet analysis and vendor contract negotiating.

Eide Bailly, LLC, an accounting and business consulting firm, is a contracted partner, providing temporary CIO staffing support and project management.

ORHPC: The Minnesota Office of Rural Health and primary care provided early support and resources for Lac qui Parle Health Network and continues to be a key collaborative partner.

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