The Mission of the Center for Community Health Leadership is to facilitate development of health information pathways by building connected, prepared and responsible communities that improve healthcare and reduce costs in everyday care delivery as well as in crisis situations such as epidemics and natural disasters.
Need
National healthcare is at a critical point – costs and demand are increasing at a pace beyond the tolerance of the current system. In response, providers are turning to health information technology to improve clinical efficiencies and meet added responsibilities at the community level:
- To coordinate care across multiple settings
- To remove duplicative tests and procedures
- To enforce evidence-based medicine and care standards
- To help with financial management and cost containment
- To expand involvement in treatment decisions
Creating a connected health IT infrastructure allows for improvements in patient safety and reductions in cost burdens as well as bioterrorism surveillance, public health monitoring of emerging epidemics, and the vital equipping of communities for catastrophic natural events on the scale of Hurricane Katrina.