Slated to go live Oct. 14
The Houston City Council this week approved more than $1.6 million in funding to implement an electronic health record system at the city's Health and Human Services Department.
The city will ink a contract with Portland, Ore.-based Oregon Community Health Information Network, or OCHIN, to provide the clinical management information system, named HealthTrak, which is slated to go live across the state's HHS department this October.
[See also: EHR users ditching systems, trading up.]
"It's important for the portability and ease of access to the medical data, particularly in areas where you have a very mobile population," said Houston Mayor Annise Parker, the Houston Chronicle reports.
According to Troy Williams, assistant director of information technology for Houston's HHS, the department qualifies for $1.6 million in federal meaningful use incentive payments over the next five years.
Harris Health System, composed of 16 community health centers, three hospitals and multiple medical clinics, along with Texas Children's Hospital, will be first to exchange data with the department, as it will have similar software, the Chronicle reports. The implementation, officials say, will make faxing between the department and area hospitals virtually obsolete.
