Friday, November 22, 2024
11/22/2024
MetaStar is a nonprofit Quality Improvement Organization in Madison, Wisconsin. We propose, under the authority of the HITECH Act and through a cooperative agreement with the Office of the National Coordinator, to operate a HIT Regional Extension Center for the entire state. Named the Wisconsin Health Information Technology Extension Center (WHITEC), this division of MetaStar will marshal the participation, input, and collaboration of a wide array of health care, education, workforce, and government stakeholders to successfully stimulate and support the adoption and meaningful use of HIT among providers throughout Wisconsin. These organizations include the Wisconsin Medical Society, other professional societies, the primary care association, community colleges, hospital associations, relevant units of universities, associations of quality improvement professionals, state agencies, public health, health plans, the area health education network, a practice-based research network, a professional liability carrier, and Wisconsin???s Medicaid director. Over the four years of the cooperative agreement and beyond, WHITEC, whose operations will begin by targeting priority primary care providers, looks to a number of key goals and objectives to guide its progress: Our long term goals are two. First, that WHITEC will ensure that all primary care providers in Wisconsin are able to attain meaningful use of electronic health records and improve health care quality and efficiency in their practices, and second that WHITEC will be a self-sustaining entity by 2012. Within those long term goals, the Center will also have short term goals. In relation to provider support those goals are to recruit a minimum of twenty percent of the state???s priority primary care providers, to help those providers to achieve meaningful use, and to successfully link to available networks for health information exchange (HIE). Added to that,WHITEC will also work to be a valuable contributor to the health information extension center community through participation with the nation Health Information Technology Research Center (HITRC) and through less formal connections with other extension centers. Concerning the long term goal of sustainability, WHITEC has program revenue goals established for each of the years of the cooperative agreement. Other sources of support ??? grants and in-kind contributions will also be sought and obtained. WHITEC will provide broad-based communications, education, and extensive onsite assistance following a customized participant roadmap. The roadmap is designed to meet the needs of individual providers by determining their current status and identifying specific services that will most effectively help them reach meaningful use of the technology. WHITEC HIT specialists will use this personalized roadmap to help providers to follow a methodical process for success starting with strategic planning and stepping through redesign of practice workflow, vendor selection, vendor contracting to include group purchasing where appropriate, HIT installation and implementation and security, and finally, meaningful use. WHITEC stands ready to provide the expertise and effort necessary to meet the goals of the HITECH legislation.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
