? ? Over 1,000,000 Oregonians are either uninsured or on Medicaid. Yet the community clinics that care for ? these patients cannot afford the information systems that are critical for providing appropriate care. The ? ORCHIDS project hopes to bridge the growing digital divide by providing Community Health Centers that care for our most economically and medically vulnerable populations, with the same information systems and tools available to clinics caring for more mainstream populations by 1) creating tools to link disparate sources of data on safety net patients; 2) providing context sensitive information to policy makers, clinic administrators, clinicians, researchers, and the public; 3) supporting communications among safety net stakeholders; and 4) developing a digital library that will provide a framework for the organization and management of information on the safety net. The project will begin in the Portland area, and will later expand to a Statewide system of Safety Net information. The planning process will involve all significant stakeholders and build upon previous work done by these organizations. Previous efforts have identified specific needs; catalogued data sources; and identified gaps in the understanding of, and information about, the safety net.
Specific aims of the project include: 1) conducting an analysis of the information needs of policy makers, clinic administrators, clinicians, researchers, and the public; 2) identifying current information practices critical to development of tools linking disparate data sets; 3) creating a strategy for a)the development of decision support tools capable of providing context-appropriate information; b)the management of a digital library of health-related resources; c) communication among the various stakeholders; and d) long-term financial sustainability. ? ? Relevance: A lack of available data at the national and local levels has hindered our ability to monitor the changing structure, capacity, and financial stability of the safety net and to provide the support it needs to care for medically vulnerable populations. Although a commitment to support the safety net is shared by many in Oregon's public and private sectors, without necessary and meaningful data to inform and drive innovative policy Oregon's safety net will remain endangered. ? ? ?
