Health Informatics and Information Technology: Facilitating Data Sharing Between Public Health and Clinical Care

In 2009, the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) supported two local health departments (LHDs) to create linkages with existing regional health information organizations (RHIOs) and develop data sharing agreements that could support various public health activities, particularly around communicable disease surveillance and preparedness.  These demonstration sites can serve as models for other LHDs as well as provide valuable lessons learned for future model refinement.

One of the sites selected to participate was Kittitas County Public Health Department.  Its project was aimed at integrating into the existing health information exchange to achieve the following goals:
 1)      Create a software module allowing two-way communication between providers and the local health department on matters such as reportable conditions and health alerts.
2)      Create EMR modules allowing the public health department to manage communicable disease outbreaks and communicate communicable disease investigation information to medical providers.
3)      Conduct an evaluation with providers regarding their perception of public health involvement in the health information exchange network (before and after public health becomes integrated).

This presentation will share Kittitas County’s experiences of implementing data sharing agreements in a small, rural environment.  It will highlight the barriers encountered and the strategies and methods that led to success.