Patty Enrado

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, or ARRA, may be the driver for connecting HIEs to P4P, said Janet Marchibroda, chief healthcare officer for IBM.

The economic stimulus funding for healthcare IT was a major topic of the Western States Health-e Connection Summit & Trade Show, which wrapped up March 3, at the Phoenix Convention Center.

Across the board, independent hospitals, ambulatory care facilities and hospitals in a health system are still pursuing their CPOE and electronic medical record projects, according to a Health Industry Insights survey.

Washington State Health Care Authority's health record bank initiative in three communities will go live at the end of February or early March and the request for proposal for the Health Record Bank of Oregon will be released in the same timeframe.

Sometime during the next two months, through grants totaling $1.7 million, the Washington State Health Care Authority, or WSHCA, will launch three consumer-controlled health record bank pilots in the communities of Bellingham, Spokane and Cashmere.

A partnership between Eclipsys and the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, or Penn Nursing, will bring the healthcare IT company's technology and clinical expertise into the nursing curriculum.

Over the past month, Colorado has successfully demonstrated its ability to share patient data securely among four health and hospital systems across the state.

Availity, provider of EDI (electronic data interchange) clearinghouse and health information exchange services, will expand its Availity Care Profile in the first half of 2009 on a region by region rollout.

DC Chartered Health Plan has begun implementing MEDecision’s care management technology to service its growing Medicaid population.

WellMed Medical Management is implementing ikaSystems' ikaEnterprise to create a system that will interface with all its clinical tools and best processes and strategies.