Arizona’s poor are moving toward better continuity of care. The Arizona Medical Information Exchange (AMIE). run by Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS)–Arizona’s private label version of Medicaid– is connected over the internet as a web-based, point-and-click, federated model that doesn’t store data, but just moves it from provider point to point. Ironically, in Arizona the poor have a possibility of getting better care than the wealthy:-)
The director of Arizona’s system, Anthony Rogers, is very forward thinking. Example: he’s looking to develop e-learning tools for physician and patient decision support in English, Spanish, and Navajo.
Rogers knows what’s wrong with the system, and what needs to be done. He says the health care delivery system today is too inefficient, too disconnected, and must be transformed for cost efficiency. It must have information going from provider to hospital and back and must reduce the cycle time from discovery to deployment of new technologies.
His take on all this? This isn’t just an IT project; it’s a transformation project. He is looking to maximize Arizona’s readiness to use those stimulus dollars. He even wants to use social networks to help patients take charge of their own health care.
AHCCCS will use its purchasing power for EHRs and will bring cost savings to any participants in its collaborative efforts. It is also developing web based e-learning tools for patients, clinical decision support tools for providers, and e-prescribing But Rogers says for all these initiatives to work, we have to have EHRs. Only then we can have clinical decision support and public health alerts, and connect with the telecommunications system to provide alerts to patients to take meds, public health information, and remote patient monitoring in a time of looming doctor shortages.
