Updated 1:40 p.m., April 6, 2010
Cuyahoga Community College could receive up to a $2.5 million grant to lead a consortium of 17 Midwestern community colleges to offer health information technology training.
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The $7.5 million first-year grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is part of a nationwide effort to meet requirements of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, which mandates that every citizen have an electronic medical record by 2014, Tri-C said in a release.
The act also sets rules for disclosure reporting, privacy monitoring, the limited use of personal medical data for marketing and patients’ electronic access to their health information, according to Washington Technology. Nearly one-third of 200 hospitals polled by patient privacy auditing and monitoring firm FairWarning said they were unprepared to meet all the law’s privacy and security requirements by the deadlines, Washington Technology said.
Tri-C and the other community colleges will use their grants to train current and future health care workers who will work with electronic health record information systems at hospitals, doctors’ offices and other medical facilities. Five regional consortia will receive grants of about $36 million to carry out the training mission.
“There is going to be a tremendous ongoing need for people to be trained in how to develop, maintain and use electronic health record information systems,” said Jerry Sue Thornton, president of Cuyahoga Community College. “This funding allows us to build on the strengths of not only our local health care partners who are ahead of the curve on electronic medical records, but also a strong network of partners across a 10-state region to deliver this training.”
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There’s a potential the Tri-C consortium could get an addition $7 million, and the five consortia, an additional $34 million, in the second year of the project from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Tri-C said.
The Tri-C-led initiative will create health information technology training programs that students complete in six months or less. Coursework will be offered at collaborating colleges, as well as online and through employer partnerships and other outreach across the 10-state region. The Midwest consortium hopes to train 5,400 people over a two-year period, beginning this fall.
Other community colleges in the consortium will receive grants ranging from $290,000 to $1.5 million, based on the numbers of students they train, Tri-C said. Consortium colleges include: Cincinnati (Ohio) State Technical and Community College; Columbus (Ohio) State Community College; Des Moines (Iowa) Area Community College; Johnson County (Kansas) Community College; Lansing (Michigan) Community College; Macomb (Michigan) Community College; Madison (Wisconsin) Area Technical College; Metropolitan (Nebraska) Community College; Moraine Valley (Illinois) Community College and Normandale (Minnesota) Community College.
