Memorandum

To: CC: From: Date: Re:

CHITREC Amy Newendorp Michael Lucio 11/4/2013 Business Proposition for Improvement

I was very excited to be given the opportunity to learn about CHITREC and what they are doing for Healthcare and for the city of Chicago. After spending much time talking with interns, staff, and managers, I have come to learn what CHITREC is, what they do, and where there may be some areas for improvement. As I have come to learn, Chicago Health Information Technology Regional Extension Center (CHITREC) was established from a 7.5 million dollar grant in February of 2010. This organization is in collaboration with Northwestern University, the Alliance of Chicago Community Health Services and more than 40 local and national partners who focus their interests in Health Information Technology (HIT) adoption, implementation and use for the city of Chicago. CHITRECs mission is to bring together resources and create a focal point of expertise that will enlighten providers, deliver results, and build the sustainable foundation for achieving meaningful use (MU) of HIT. Some goals of CHITREC include: Create a not for profit, hands-on infrastructure to establish a synchronized approach to HIT in Chicago, deliver electronic health records (EHR) and MU consultation and solutions to all of Chicago and develop opportunities for internships and employment by developing strong relationships between CHITRECs team of experts and collaborators from academia and industry as well as community workforce organizations and the Illinois Department of Labor. (About Us, 2010) How these goals are achieved is by bringing together a list of services to the provider such as education and training, MU gap analysis, workflow analysis and redesign, and E-prescribing implementation. Much emphasis has been placed on the primary care provider (PCP) to learn and adapt to the new EHR system along with the rest of his/her practice. There has been much progress in meeting meaningful use; however, there are still some hurdles to overcome. In order for meaningful use to be successful, patient engagement needs to be set at a higher standard to achieve. This can be accomplished by also engaging the employees of a practice or clinic to have a more active role in promoting electronic interactions between patients, their health history, and with their PCP. With a new change in the medical clinics, patients must also be part of the change but not as a bystander, but as an active contributor. In this change of healthcare culture, patients, as described by Laura Kreofsky, are not yet accustomed to having their health information or healthcare providers available to them through electronic means (Kreofsky, 2013) She also explains that many healthcare leaders see enhancing staff engagement as a means to patient engagement is essential for sustaining meaningful use. CHITREC can help engage staff to engage patients by developing a plan that can directly impact both populations such as marketing, upgrading EHR systems, which can be more userfriendly to patients, and a workflow that will give the staff a more active role in engaging patients to be more in touch with their EHR.

CONFIDENTIAL

November 4, 2013 CHITREC has had much success within a three year span but there is still much to be done. Health Information Technology is the future of medical care and CHITREC is on the frontline in achieving its full potential. There are many hurdles to overcome but with so many success stories underneath its belt and many more to come, CHITREC can truly help the City of Chicago become the leader and a model in the use of HIT and change the way the health clinics function for years to come.

November 4, 2013 References

1. About Us. (2010, February). Retrieved October 8, 2013, from CHITREC: http://chitrec.org/ 2. Kreofsky, L. (2013, February). Meaningful Use. Retrieved October 8 2013, from Health Management Technology: www.healthmgttech.com/articles/201302/engaging-staff-to-engage-patients.php