GaHIN received a $500,000 STAR HIE Grant from the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) in the Fall of 2020. Since that time, GaHIN has worked closely with the ONC team to launch activities that will further support DPH and DCH in accessing, sharing, and using electronic health information, especially data from populations underserved and/or disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In order to increase the electronic reporting of results to the COVID-19 Registry from target populations, GaHIN is working to connect:
- Clinical facilities of the Veterans Administration across Georgia
- Correctional facilities
- Hospitals that are not currently sending COVID-19 test results through GaHIN
Activities underway include outreach to hospitals which are not connected to GaHIN and partnering with HI-BRIDGE HIE to reach out to correctional facilities. Additionally, the GaHIN team has prepared a detailed program monitoring plan which identifies milestones and status to meet the reporting requirements for the grant.
GaHIN was the first HIE to present at the monthly meeting of STAR HIE Grant recipients. The ONC praised the presentation, “Developing Strong HIE & State, County, Local, Public Health Department Relationships: The GaHIN Experience.” The ONC wrote: “These efforts can potentially translate into national best practices for improving health information exchange services supporting communities disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and having the ability to respond to any other future public health emergencies.”
