Western Nebraska Health Information Exchange Network-Rural Network Development

Click here to read the Western Nebraska Health Information Exchange Network Public health Reporting-Schematics and Matrix, published in August 2007.

The Western Nebraska Health Information Exchange Network is designed to serve the 90,400 residents of 12 Nebraska counties with an improved system of health care. The initiative will ultimately enable health, behavioral heath, long term care, and community health providers to improve patient safety and quality of care through an enhanced, sustainable system of collaborative healthcare. This healthcare collaborative will create a compatible system to seamlessly share patient information among hospitals and providers in real time while adhering to national standards for interfacing with other networks. The goals of the Rural Network Development project are:

• Informed development of Electronic Health Records in the community health center, regional mental health provider clinics, private practices and long term care facilities through a common process and shared resources in order to enhance local and regional capacity development toward health information exchange;
• An operational entity and incorporated Regional Health Information Organization to provide the infrastructure necessary to support regional health information exchange and common development in the Electronic Health Records; and,
• The ability to enhance public health and Healthy People 2010 outcomes through inclusion of public health services reporting systems, surveillance of regional data, access to immunization records, provider alerts for best practice health management and out of norm test results for chronic disease management, notification process, and public health information distribution.

The University of Nebraska Public Policy Center is working with the Health Information Exchange to:

• enhance public health and Healthy People 2010 outcomes through inclusion of public health services' reporting systems, surveillance of regional data, access to immunization records, provider alerts for best practice health management and out of norm test results for chronic disease management, notification process, and public health information distribution.
• assess and document the process and outcomes of regional capacity development, formation of a regional structure, and public health interfacing into health information exchange systems within the context of health information exchange implementation. Additionally, a research methodology will be developed for measuring the impact of the Training Academy .

The project is funded, in part, through a three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, Rural Health Network Development Program #D06RH06884-01-00.

The Western Nebraska Health Information Exchange Network project is a complementary extension of the Regional Health Records for Nebraska 's Panhandle project that is bringing together hospitals, clinics, public health, and behavioral health to create the organizational and technological infrastructure for health information exchange. The Regional Health Records for Nebraska's Panhandle project is funded, in part, through a three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Transforming Healthcare Quality Through Health Information Technology Implementation #1 UC1 HS 16143-01 (Health Information Exchange: A Frontier Model).