Agenda

Return

C. 34

To:	Board of Supervisors
From:	William Walker, M.D., Health Services Director
Date:	December 8, 2015

Contra

Costa

County

Subject:

Authorize to Apply and Accept if awarded a California State EMS Authority Grant to Advance Health Information Exchange in Emergency Medical Services G

APPROVE	OTHER
RECOMMENDATION OF CNTY ADMINISTRATOR	RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE

Action of Board On: 12/08/2015

APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED

OTHER

Clerks Notes:

VOTE OF SUPERVISORS

AYE:

John Gioia, District I Supervisor
Candace Andersen, District II Supervisor
Mary N. Piepho, District III Supervisor
Karen Mitchoff, District IV Supervisor
Federal D. Glover, District V Supervisor

Contact:	Pat Frost, 646-4690
cc:	T Scott M Wilhelm Leticia Andreas

I hereby certify that this is a true and correct copy of an action taken and entered on the minutes of the Board of Supervisors on the date shown.
ATTESTED: December 8, 2015
David Twa,

BY:	, Deputy

RECOMMENDATION(S):

APPROVE and AUTHORIZE the Health Services Director, or designee, to apply for and accept, if awarded, the California State EMS Authority Health Information Exchange Emergency Medical Services Grant (PULSE+EMS) to demonstrate health information exchange between emergency medical services and community hospitals.

FISCAL IMPACT:

None.

BACKGROUND:

In 2013 Contra Costa EMS was awarded a State EMS Authority Health Information Exchange Grant to conduct a data infrastructure analysis assessing Contra Costa Emergency Medical Services readiness for health information exchange. That analysis became part of a report “Health Information Exchange Services in Support of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Medical Response” prepared for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (IT) in April of 2014.

BACKGROUND: (CONT'D)

As a result of this participation Contra Costa EMS was invited by the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response to participate in the US Department of Health and Human Services Patient Unified System for Emergencies (PULSE), an effort in California to ensure potentially life-saving health information is available to health professionals and emergency responders during a disaster.
In June 2015 the State of California Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA) was awarded a Patient Unified Lookup System for Emergencies Plus Emergency Medical Services known as (PULSE+EMS) grant from the US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of National Information Technology to advance health information exchanged (HIE) statewide during a disaster and regionally in daily emergency medical services (EMS).

The project has three primary use case deliverables:
1. Development of public health disaster response medical history portal, called PULSE, for health care professionals and creation of four connections to non-profit community or private health information organizations (HIO);
2. Implementation of PULSE, with a secure, web-based portal for healthcare professionals, who are California Disaster Healthcare Volunteers (DHV), and;
3. Implementation of +EMS for daily EMS exchange in 2 regional areas in California, which included 1 ambulance provider and 1 hospital in each area.

The Contra Costa EMS Agency is seeking approval to apply for and receive if awarded a grant to support Health information exchange within Contra Costa County. The competitive grant award is between $250,000 to $500,000 with funding directed to support the grant deliverables associated with +EMS. Over the last 12 months Contra Costa EMS has been working with the following entities who have committed to participating in the effort and include EPIC, Contra Costa Regional Medical Center, Contra Costa Health Services Division of Information Technology, Contra Costa Health Service Division of Public Health, First Watch (EMS Agency analytics vendor) and Alliance partner American Medical Response. In addition Contra Costa Community Hospital Partners Kaiser and Sutter Health are exploring participation. All grant deliverables must be completed prior to July 2017 and it is anticipated that that grant project will take a minimum of 12 months to complete.

CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:

The Contra Costa EMS System and patients will not benefit from the ability to conduct health information exchange between EMS providers and hospitals under normal and disaster conditions.