Ohio Shared Information Services (OSIS) is a not-for-profit
corporation started in December of 2000 by Federally
Qualified Health Centers (FQHC's) providing healthcare
services to underserved patients in nine counties
of Southwest Ohio and four counties in Kentucky.
The Southern Ohio Health Services Network, Health
Point Family Care, Lincoln Heights Health Connection,
Cincinnati Health Network, Neighborhood Health, West
End Healthcare, Butler County Community Healthcare,
Crossroads Health, the Cincinnati Health Department,
Babies Milk Fund and Winton Hills Health Care combined
their resources to form OSIS to provide computer
system capabilities and networking support that would
otherwise be impractical for them to develop independently.
A high-speed Wide Area Computer Network connects 52 health delivery locations
with sophisticated computer capabilities with 45 shared servers in the OSIS operations
center. Seventy-two computer system software applications are available to the
OSIS users who share a significant set of common system processes. In a 2003
survey of users, OSIS provided its complete set of capabilities at an average
cost of 1.8% of gross revenues, a significant savings over what would otherwise
be anticipated at market rates for the services provided. OSIS has expanded its
services to include centralized medical billing, nursing support, contract negotiations,
quality service management, chronic disease management (Diabetes, etc.) and now
is probing the financial benefits of centralized employee benefit contracting.
The Executive Directors of the centers it serves comprise the OSIS Board of Directors.
Under their direction, OSIS has established a vision of deploying a centralized
Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and Electronic Dental Record (DMR) System capability
to all of the centers it supports. This would avail the electronic transfer of
patient record information to the 120 OSIS supported physicians serving underprivileged
patients in 59 locations across the 13 local counties that comprise the Greater
Cincinnati area. All of these centers are collaborating through OSIS to make
this vision a reality. This includes all FQHC's in the area, the Cincinnati Health
Department, and Babies Milk Fund.
The EMR and DMR system will lead to improved quality care to the underserved
and help Community Health Centers further reduce health care disparities, eliminating
the health gaps for minorities as well as the poor. The goal is to help patients
become healthier, more productive and more employable, able to live better lives
and take care of their families.
To accomplish this task, these entities are in the planning phase of a campaign
to raise $8.5 million dollars ($7.5MM for EMR, and $1MM to complete DMR). This
will develop the infrastructure, build the capability, and sustain the operation
of this capability for the initial two years of its deployment.
Attached is the Executive Summary of the draft case for support.
The move from paper
to electronic medical records...
An opportunity that will benefit the entire Greater Cincinnati community.
The delivery of healthcare services is a complex
and intricate web of providers, protocols, payment
and reimbursement plans. Add to this an ever-changing
family structure resulting from a high divorce rate,
a more mobile society and more job changes, and it’s
easy to see why tracking patients’ medical
records has become a monumental task.
Paper records, the norm to date, are not only slow
and cumbersome, but labor intensive. They are extremely
costly to handle and store and highly conducive to
being lost. If not kept current or if illegible,
paper records give potential to unnecessary and redundant
treatment and, even worse, to tragic medical error.
There is growing pressure on the nation’s
hospitals, physicians, community health centers,
and health centers to move from paper records to Electronic Medical Records
(EMRs)*. Making the switch will provide greater efficiencies, reduce labor,
and eliminate unnecessary paperwork as well as paper storage costs. EMRs will
also allow for the portability of records, secure access to records by approved
providers anytime/anywhere, and help ensure the currency and accuracy of patient
information –– all leading to improved patient care at reduced
cost.
The savings and health care advantages afforded
by Electronic Medical Records are necessary and justifiable
for all patients, but most certainly for the those
without access to medical care, as well as the uninsured
and underinsured, a patient population whose care
is subsidized by the rest of society. The healthier
this patient base –- commonly referred to as
the medically underserved –– the healthier
our community overall, both medically and economically.
The opportunity exists today for the implementation
of an Electronic Medical Records system for Greater
Cincinnati’s Community Health Centers (CHCs),
the Cincinnati Health Department, and the Babies
Milk Fund. These three entities have over 50 sites
across a 13-county area in southeast Ohio and northern
Kentucky where they provide high-quality, affordable
primary care, preventive medical services and dental
care to more than 170,000 low-income, medically underserved
patients annually. The change to EMRs will make a
measurable impact on the delivery of quality health
care at less cost to our area’s most vulnerable
populations.
Who can facilitate the change to EMRs? Ohio Shared
Information Services (OSIS), the managed services organization
that provides cost-effective practice management and
technical business services for the CHCs. In partnership
with the CHCs, the Cincinnati Health Department and
the Babies Milk Fund, OSIS is embarking on a campaign
to raise $8.5 million for an EMR system that would serve
its 13-county service area.
