In September 2017, the Oregon Health Leadership Council (OHLC) and the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) released the Health Information Technology (HIT) “Commons” Business Plan that will guide the creation of a public/private HIT governance partnership for Oregon. Leveraging current efforts, the HIT Commons is intended to help connect existing HIT systems, support statewide solutions, and to guide future investments that support advancing health IT across Oregon.
This business plan is the result of collaborative work among OHLC, OHA and many stakeholders and has been accepted by OHA and the OHLC board. Staff have been directed to take the necessary steps to put a HIT Commons transition governance structure in place and begin this important work going forward.
Starting in 2018, the HIT Commons will assume governance of the Emergency Department Information Exchange (EDIE) along with other priority statewide HIT initiatives, with the express purpose of accelerating and advancing OHA’s vision of an HIT optimized health care delivery system in Oregon. OHA will co-sponsor this work, and will bring significant federal and state matching funding for qualifying initiatives under the HIT Commons.
Specific opportunities of an effective HIT Commons include:
Establishing a neutral governance and decision-making process for investing in HIT efforts
Leveraging opportunities for shared funding of efforts with statewide impact
Coordinating efforts to enable a network of networks for health information exchange (HIE)
Facilitating access to high value data to improve efficiency and quality of care, including an initial focus on funding a statewide HIT Gateway subscription for efficiently connecting Oregon’s providers to the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP), and
Supporting core infrastructure needed for care coordination and alternative payment models
To be effective, the HIT Commons must build and maintain a critical mass of health care providers, hospitals, CCOs and insurers in order to gain maximum value. We’ve seen the impact that Oregon can make when we have critical mass, including using EDIE and PreManage to reduce ED utilization for many Oregonians who have been high utilizers of ED services. The HIT Commons will leverage the experience gained from the OHLC/OHA EDIE governance partnership model initially, with the intent to move to a more formal, independent legal and management structure as experience warrants. This has been referred to as a “crawl, walk, run” strategy to build on what has worked and provide flexibility for future effective execution of statewide health information technology efforts.
We look forward to working with Oregon health care stakeholders as we transition to launch the HIT Commons in 2018. Thank you for your support of this effort.
~Greg Van Pelt, President,
Oregon Health Leadership Council