Health Information Technology and Health Information Exchange Implementation in Rural and Underserved Areas: Findings From the AHRQ Health IT Portfolio

摘要

The AHRQ health IT portfolio consists of grants and contracts to support organizational and community-wide implementation and diffusion of health IT and to assess the extent to which health IT contributes to measurable and sustainable improvements in patient safety, cost, and overall quality of care. As part of this funding, AHRQ awarded 40 implementation grants under the Transforming Healthcare Quality through Information Technology (THQIT) grant program. These grants focused on improving care in rural and underserved areas and a significant portion of grantees concentrated their health IT funding to organizations providing care to these populations. The AHRQ Health IT portfolio also includes a National Resource Center for Health IT (NRC), created to support the many projects funded by AHRQ and the Nation in adopting and evaluating health IT. The NRC has established an infrastructure for collecting, analyzing, and disseminating best practices and lessons learned from AHRQ's portfolio of health IT projects. This report focuses on the challenges facing rural and underserved communities in integrating health IT into their health care delivery systems.