: The Louisiana Rural Health Information Technology Partnership (LRHITP) is an unincorporated association of rural health care providers and health care organizations, whose principal purpose is to coordinate organizational and community-wide implementation of health information technology for the improvement of patient safety, cost, and quality of health care. While technology is not the panacea for any health care dilemma, it significantly enhances the ability of an organization to streamline processes and the ability of a health care system to coordinate care; both of which generate cost savings and increase quality. The goals of this rural health technology project are to: (1) improve coordination of care; (2) increase quality of care; and (3) provide cost savings to the system. The project's goals link directly to the Healthy People 2010 goal to increase the quality and years of healthy life. ? ? The Louisiana Critical Access Hospital Network through its membership in the LRHITP will implement the use of an emergency department EMR system and evaluate the use of this technology toward improving patient safety and quality of care. In Year 1, EMR systems will be initiated in the emergency departments of Assumption Community Hospital, Madison Parish Hospital, Pointe Coupee General Hospital, St. Helena Parish Hospital, St. James Parish Hospital, and West Feliciana Parish Hospital. In Year 2, six additional facilities will implement the emergency department EMR. In Year 3, the remaining five members of the Louisiana Critical Access Hospital Network will implement the EMR system. The project will be expanded to allow other community health care providers to access emergency department EMR discharge summaries to improve continuity of care and quality of care. The system chosen for implementation is CMR(c)"""""""" or Complete Medical Record, a computerized emergency department communication, documentation, passive tracking and medical records system. CMR(c) is a SQL based application. ? ?
