Lab orders and results are often sent by fax or mail. CHCF has allocated $300,000 to implement and test electronic data exchange using the ELINCS Orders specification. Proposals were due January 20.

Small medical practices often lack the resources to implement electronic practice management systems. A pilot project in Tulare County helped integrate EHRs.

Chronic disease management systems can help track multiple chronic conditions. In 2008, six philanthropies launched this initiative to enable community clinics adopt CDMS technology.

This initiative will improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of care by promoting the integration of clinical data at the point of care. Uniform standards have been developed for pharmacy (CALINX Rx) and laboratory (CALINX Lab) data.

ELINCS is the EHR-Lab Interoperability and Connectivity Specification. It standardizes the formatting and coding of electronic messages exchanged between clinical laboratories and ambulatory electronic health record (EHR) systems. Adopting clinical data standards such as ELINCS helps health care providers deliver the right care by making information available at the right time.

These four issues briefs are tactically oriented and draw from experiences of real community clinics as they adopt electronic health records. The four topics are chart abstraction, clinical documentation, training strategies, and workflow.

Seven grantees representing four models of EHR deployment were funded to accelerate the adoption of EHRs in the safety net. CHCF is publishing a series of issue briefs to highlight lessons learned.

California is one of the few states that do not yet collect physician identifiers on hospital discharge data. This white paper examines what other states are doing with respect to the collection of physician identifiers and the challenges involved.

These tools describe the SPeD model and outline the roles and responsibilities related to enabling small practices to adopt and make meaningful use of EHRs and data-driven improvements. Included are assessment tools, technical guides, checklists, and a playbook.

The sharing of lab results with providers and patients is subject to an array of federal and state laws. This paper provides information to help policymakers understand the issues.

This report explains how innovative use of IT in rural areas can improve the health and health care of rural populations, and discusses the challenges to implementation.

This report looks at the role that practice management systems can play in the operation and management of safety-net clinics and small physician offices in California.

Chronic disease management systems (CDMSs) can track thousands of patients at a time and automate care follow-up processes. Four California clinics describe their experiences setting up and using these quality-improvement tools.

This issue brief presents the results of a survey that finds that most California hospitals are using emergency department tracking systems, but with varying levels of satisfaction and success.

This issue brief explores the network approach to the implementation of electronic health records (EHRs) and its potential to increase EHR adoption rates among California's community clinics and health centers.