The trust fabric and infrastructure created as a result of the efforts of the communities participating in the Beacon Community Program has been extremely valuable, said Patrick Gordan, director of government programs for Rocky Mountain Health Plans and Colorado Beacon Consortium program director, during a videocast held by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology on May 22.
The videocast was held to discuss the lessons learned from the Beacon Community Program as it enters its final phase. The program aims to demonstrate how strengthening local health IT infrastructure can improve quality and efficiency of healthcare. The ONC provided the 17 communities that participated in the program with $250 million over three years.
According to Farzad Mostashari, national coordinator for health information technology, the 17 Beacon communities displayed remarkable teamwork as they aligned policies and benchmarked quality measures together. This teamwork was one of the pillars of the program and resulted in improved quality for all communities.
Collaboration was essential, as no community was impervious to the changes taking place in healthcare, said Mr. Gordon, and the program also helped make collaboration more effective. Another lesson, he added, was that to be able to implement abstract concepts into practice, the concepts needed to be "boiled down" into specific examples. This could sometimes be a challenge.
Creating structural support for innovation is the mark of successful organizations, said Mr. Gordon. This includes investing in human capital. While technology and data capture is important, having the human capital to back it is of utmost importance.
"You don't necessarily need expensive technology or multi-million grants to succeed, you need the will to move forward," said Mr. Gordon.
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The videocast was held to discuss the lessons learned from the Beacon Community Program as it enters its final phase. The program aims to demonstrate how strengthening local health IT infrastructure can improve quality and efficiency of healthcare. The ONC provided the 17 communities that participated in the program with $250 million over three years.
According to Farzad Mostashari, national coordinator for health information technology, the 17 Beacon communities displayed remarkable teamwork as they aligned policies and benchmarked quality measures together. This teamwork was one of the pillars of the program and resulted in improved quality for all communities.
Collaboration was essential, as no community was impervious to the changes taking place in healthcare, said Mr. Gordon, and the program also helped make collaboration more effective. Another lesson, he added, was that to be able to implement abstract concepts into practice, the concepts needed to be "boiled down" into specific examples. This could sometimes be a challenge.
Creating structural support for innovation is the mark of successful organizations, said Mr. Gordon. This includes investing in human capital. While technology and data capture is important, having the human capital to back it is of utmost importance.
"You don't necessarily need expensive technology or multi-million grants to succeed, you need the will to move forward," said Mr. Gordon.
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