The New York State Department of Health awarded 11 health care organizations grants totaling $109 million to improve coordination of health care in the state through health IT, especially mental health, long-term care and home-based care.
The funding is aimed at projects that contribute to building a health IT infrastructure in New York that will enable healthcare providers to coordinate care for patients with complex and chronic health problems.
The two-year grants will advance the Patient-Centered Medical Home model of care, under which medical information is shared across all types of providers involved in the care of a single patient to better manage the patient's treatment, said Dr. Richard Daines, New York state health commissioner.
Communication among providers and coordination of care that occurs as a patient moves among different care settings, such as primary care, medical imaging, and specialty care, have shown to reduce medical errors and their associated costs and prevent unnecessary and duplication of services.
"Chronic illness experienced by individuals with complex health problems impacts the health and productivity of New Yorkers and drives up health care costs," Daines said in an announcement Sept. 10.
"A greater focus on prevention and coordination of care, enhanced by health information technology, will improve health and reduce costs over time," he said.
The ability of different providers in different settings to share clinical information in the treatment of patients with complex conditions requires them to establish interoperable electronic medical records.
By connecting to the Statewide Health Information Network for NY (SHIN-NY) health care providers can retrieve, store and share up-to-date patient information regardless of where care is delivered. SHIN-NY is a specially-designed Internet-based communications system that ensures the privacy and security of information shared among health care providers.
Among the project awards were the Western New York Clinical Information Exchange, or HealtheLink, which received $3.8 million to target a patient population with affective disorders; Long Island patient Information Exchange, which received $20 million to focus on patients with schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders; and the New York City Regional Extension Adoption Center for Health, which received $9.9 million, to concentrate on patients with depression and schizophrenia.
The New York state health department coordinated with other state organizations in providing the grant funding, including the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York, which is a public financing and construction authority, as part of the Health Care Efficiency and Affordability Law of New York (HEAL NY) and the Federal State Health Reform Partnership (F-SHRP), which supports efforts that improve the efficiency and affordability of New York's health care system.
