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Press Release HATTIESBURG -- The Institute for Disability Studies at the University of Southern Mississippi, in collaboration with Forrest General Hospital, Hattiesburg Clinic, Southern Mississippi Neonatology and Southeast Mississippi Rural Health Initiative, is the recipient of a $1.5 million 2005 Health Information Technology Implementation Grant. This federal grant will support project CONNECT (Creating Online NICU Networks to Educate, Consult and Team) with $499,999 per year over a three-year period. Project CONNECT will expand upon an electronic medical records-sharing initiative for high-risk infants and their families; develop portable personal electronic medical records for high-risk infants; use telemedicine technologies to enhance evidence and create Web-based decision support resources for physicians who care for infants. "The original CONNECT partners (the Institute for Disability Studies, Forrest General and Southern Mississippi Neonatology) completed a successful year of federally funded planning activities to create a strong foundation for building a valuable health information technology system in Hattiesburg and the surrounding 17-county rural area," said Dr. Jane Siders, Director of the Institute. Dr. Valerie Rachal, the project's principal investigator, added, "We are very excited that Hattiesburg Clinic and Southeast Mississippi Rural Health Initiative have joined the original CONNECT partners as we work together over the next three years to develop a local system to electronically share health information among providers and patients." Forrest General Hospital and Hattiesburg Clinic are poised to serve as leaders in demonstrating how patient-care benefits will result from collaboration and sharing of information among health provider organizations. "Forrest General is extremely proud to be part of this effort to improve the use of electronic medical information. Our organization has a national reputation in this area, and with the help of the other organizations, we are confident that this project will have superb results," said Bill Oliver, president of Forrest General Hospital. Hattiesburg Clinic Executive Director Tommy Thornton, FACMPE, agrees that the project will have the capacity to improve health care in the area. "The CONNECT project has the potential to help establish a community medical record, which will link patient medical records from all sites of service in our area. This will provide physicians immediate access to patient medical information, which we are confident will result in better care. This project will help our Clinic long term as we strive to electronically connect patient medical records from 200 providers in 45 sites of service throughout south central Mississippi," Thornton said. While the resulting system of shared electronic medical records will benefit all patients, project CONNECT will focus its attention on premature and high-risk newborns discharged from the Forrest General Hospital Newborn Intensive Care Unit. "Our goal is to make medicine transparent-so that when one of our discharged infants sees a physician, that physician can pull up the child's complete health record and see the big picture," said Dr. Clint White, a physician with Southern Mississippi Neonatology Group. "Patients will receive better care if their physician knows what diagnostic tests have been run, what medications have been used, and how the patient has responded to different medical interventions in the past. Rather than waiting for days or weeks to receive the patient's paper medical records, the physician will be able to access them instantly and provide the patient the best care based on complete medical information." Kaye Ray, director of Southeast Mississippi Rural Health Initiative (SeMRHI) emphasized the value of the portable electronic medical records being developed by project CONNECT. "Developing portable electronic medical records for our premature high-risk infants living in rural communities of south Mississippi will have the potential to significantly enhance the medical and developmental follow-up these children receive." SeMRHI served approximately 2,500 young pediatric patients 5 years of age and younger in the past year and is committed to providing quality primary care to rural families regardless of ability to pay. Benefits to patients of having electronic health records shared by an integrated health care delivery system include avoidance of duplicate, invasive and/or expensive lab and diagnostic tests, as well as patient confidence that the physician has access to all relevant parts of the patient's medical history prior to prescribing medications or providing treatment. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) recently announced the award of more than $22.3 million to 16 grantees to implement health information technology (IT) systems. AHRQ is supporting the federal initiative to improve the nation's health care system by promoting the adoption of health IT by local communities and health care providers, especially in rural and small communities. About The University of Southern Mississippi The University of Southern Mississippi, founded in 1910, is a comprehensive doctoral and research-extensive university fulfilling its mission of being a leading university in engaging and empowering individuals to transform lives and communities. In a tradition of leadership for student development, Southern Miss is educating a 21 st century work force providing intellectual capital, cultural enrichment and innovation to Mississippi and the world. Southern Miss is located in Hattiesburg, Miss., with an additional campus and teaching and research sites on the Mississippi Gulf Coast; further information is found at www.usm.edu . |
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CONNECT is a Health Information Technology Implementation grant funded by the Agency on Healthcare Research and Quality (Grant #02429). |
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Last Modified: August 21, 2008
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