Ohio group gets $43M federal grant to promote electronic health records adoption

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The nonprofit, state-sponsored group that has been charged with promoting electronic health records adoption in Ohio has received a $43 million federal grant.

The grant to the Ohio Health Information Partnership comes from last year’s federal stimulus act and is part of $1 billion in recently announced federal funding for health information technology. OHIP will use $15 million to create a statewide health information exchange, a collection of electronic patient records that can be accessed by providers throughout Ohio, according to a statement from Gov. Ted Strickland’s office.

The remaining $28 million of the grant will go toward creating so-called “regional extension centers,” which will support hospital, physicians and other providers in their adoption and implementation of electronic health records systems.

OHIP’s board includes representatives from BioOhio, the Ohio Hospital Association, the Ohio State Medical Association, the Ohio Osteopathic Association and state government. The group was created last year.

Last week, four Ohio organizations were awarded a total of $19 million in federal stimulus funds to train workers for jobs in the health care industry.