Washington, D.C. – Rhode Island’s congressional delegation today announced that the Rhode Island Quality Institute (RIQI) will receive $11.28 million from two American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) grants for health information technology (HIT). This federal funding will be used to improve the lives of Rhode Islanders by making our health care delivery system more efficient and responsive.
“This is a smart investment that will help create jobs and allow hospitals and providers throughout the state to upgrade their technology systems and improve patient care while controlling costs and reducing medical errors,” said Senator Jack Reed.
“This great investment in the effectiveness and efficiency of our health care delivery system puts Rhode Island squarely on a path to national leadership in reforming health care by improving quality and lowering cost. The Rhode Island Quality Institute is a national model of health care participants cooperating to transform health care,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, who last year spearheaded the effort to create HIT regional extension centers to provide information and assistance to doctors who implement this new technology.
“The promise of information technology to help transform our nation’s broken health care system has long been recognized. The Rhode Island Quality Institute has proven to be a national leader in health IT. Their work has demonstrated that evidence-based, outcome measures can reduce medical errors, provide better preventative care, improve the quality of care, and reduce costs. This investment will support efforts to provide coordinated health care to Rhode Islanders and achieve better outcomes for the dollars spent,” said Congressman Patrick Kennedy.
“Improving the way we share and work with medical records in this digital age is a key component to lowering the costs of health care,” said Congressman James Langevin. “I look forward to tracking the progress of this funding to the Rhode Island Quality Institute.”
Specifically, RIQI will receive two separate grants:
• Health Information Exchange Award – $5,280,000: this funding will assist RIQI in implementing a integrated information exchange to improve health outcomes, reduce medical errors, and make our health care delivery system more effective and efficient.
• Regional Extension Center Award – $6,000,000: much like agricultural extension services aid farmers in growing crops, HIT regional extension centers will assist health care providers in integrating effective HIT systems. This funding will allow RIQI to provide such vital technical assistance to doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers.
The funding was made possible by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which was supported by the entire Congressional delegation.
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