The Dept. of Health and Human Services will soon announce the 15 communities - from a pool of 130 applicants - that will serve as the Beacon Communities.
The chosen 15 will receive federal funding to strengthen their health IT infrastructure and health information exchange capabilities, and become models for the rest of the country's health IT efforts. The beacon communities will also be tasked with showing measurable improvement in healthcare quality, safety, efficiency and population health.
Given the low adoption rate of health IT in the healthcare industry, it's promising to see so many communities in an advanced state of readiness. No doubt the chosen 15 will be able to expand and provide best practices and lessons learned. It will be interesting to see what distinguished the chosen 15 from the rest.
We can expect great things from the ones who get the Beacon Community grants. What I would be interested in knowing is what will the other 115 communities do? No doubt they will continue doing what they were doing. After all, they got to where they are now with no federal funding. David Blumenthal, MD, head of ONC, said the $220 million that the 15 beacon communities get will be the last of the $2 billion that ONC earmarked for health IT adoption. I don't know if there will be any more funds to put into the program, but success in the beacon communities may spur additional funding. Maybe there shouldn't be any more funds, if you are of the mindset that many successful healthcare systems, communities and regions built their IT infrastructures without relying on any grants, which enabled them to develop viable business models.
Future federal funding or none, I hope the other 115 communities strengthen their IT infrastructures and HIE capabilities, and become unofficial beacon communities. Maybe the ones who aren't chosen will redouble their efforts and the entire country will be the better for their early adoption, innovation and vision.
Once the beacon communities are chosen, I think it would be great to hear from the communities that weren't chosen and let us know what they've done and where they are going.
Patty Enrado blogs daily at EHRWatch.com.
