SD eHEALTH Collaborative  
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SD eHealth Collaborative

Background

Beginning in October 2006, the South Dakota Departments of Health, Human Services and Social Services funded the South Dakota Electronic Health Record Assessment (SDEHRA) project to investigate the usage of electronic health records in the state, as well as the perceptions of providers and consumers in relation to electronic health records and health information exchange. The goals of SDERHA were to assess variations in organization-level business policies and state laws that affect health information exchange (HIE), identify barriers and best practices relating to HIE, identify privacy and security issues relating to HIE, and investigate HIE possibilities for South Dakota and surrounding region. The project utilized a two-prong approach to gathering data, including online surveys for payers, providers, and consumers as well as four regional focus groups with a variety of participants and stakeholders. The results of the project were reported to the Governor’s Health Care Commission whose members served as the steering committee and shared with the general public at the SD Health Information Technology (HIT) Summit in the Fall of 2007.

Also during 2007, the Zaniya Project Task Force was enacted to develop a plan to provide access to affordable, comprehensive health insurance to all South Dakota residents. This task force also utilized surveys and focus groups as data collection methods and included a diverse membership of employers, health care providers, the insurance industry, tribal health representatives, consumers, trade association representatives, and state government officials.

The South Dakota eHealth Collaborative was established by the Governor’s Health Care Commission in the Spring of 2008 to develop a long range plan to facilitate implementing interoperable information technology to improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of healthcare in South Dakota. The SD eHealth Collaborative has active members from several key groups, including physicians, patients, state legislators, insurance companies and other payers, state and local government officials, health information managers, lawyers and project administrators.

The SD eHealth Collaborative will work to address both the barriers found in the SDEHRA phase and the suggestions from the Zaniya Taskforce related to health information technology. The work groups involved with this phase of the project included the Patient and Provider Education and Outreach Workgroup, the Provider and Payer Data Consensus Work Group, the Legal and Patient Consent Work Group, and the Technical Issues Workgroup. The following assumptions guide the eHealth Collaborative and the four workgroups: people will continue to seek and receive healthcare; documentation of that healthcare will continue to be needed; health information exchange will continue to be needed; electronic health records and electronic data exchange are happening and evolving; and single data entry is ideal.