Statewide Health Information Exchange
Health information exchange (HIE) is the infrastructure that supports the flow of health information between physician practices, hospitals, labs, radiology centers, and other healthcare institutions. An HIE allows delivery of the right health information to the right place at the right time providing safer, more timely, efficient, patient-centered care. The Maryland Health Care Commission has designated CRISP the entity to build the HIE for the state of Maryland. This work is being funded through Maryland's unique all-payor system as well as a federal ARRA grant.
Regional Extension Center
The CRISP Regional Extension Center (REC) is a resource for any Maryland healthcare provider needing assistance in adopting an Electronic Health Record (EHR). The REC has partnered with state-designated Management Services Organizations (MSOs) as the mechanism for achieving widespread adoption and meaningful use of EHRs. CRISP's goal is to assist 1,000 priority primary care providers across Maryland, particularly those in rural and medically underserved areas, to achieve the meaningful use of EHRs. CRISP was chosen as Maryland’s Regional Extension Center by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) on April 6, 2010. CRISP was awarded $6.4 million to assist 1,000 primary care providers to deploy EHRs and achieve meaningful use under Grant #90RC0059/01.
In 2011, the MHCC received funding from the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) to address transitions of care in long-term care, which is one of the four challenge themes of the HIE Challenge Program. The goal of this project is to leverage Maryland’s operational statewide health information exchange to electronically share critical pieces of clinical information, including information on advance directives, where they exist, in near real-time as residents of the state’s long term care (LTC) facilities transition from one care setting to another. The pilot project seeks to deploy new scalable technology among seven pairs of LTC facilities and five geographically proximate hospitals that will enable the exchange of care-transition data.
Funding for this pilot also calls for Maryland to plan and test the availability of electronic advance health care directives (advance directives) and Medical Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment (MOLST) forms and also expand the roll-out of the CRISP query portal to long-term care facilities which will allow LTC health care providers to view hospital demographics and clinical data for treatment purposes.
MedChi, The Maryland State Medical Society, has partnered with CRISP to provide outreach and education on EHRs to providers throughout Maryland. MedChi's mission is to serve as Maryland's foremost advocate and resource for physicians, their patients, and the public health. Established in 1799 and counting more than 7,000 member of all specialties, MedChi is the state's oldest and largest organization of physicians.