Ventura County Foster Health Link
Electronically sharing health data
for children living in foster care
Barry Zimmerman, Director
Ventura County Human Services Agency
Ginny Puddefoot, Director of Health IT Initiatives
The Children’s Partnership
September 19, 2012
Project
Create an electronic
record that stays with
each Ventura County
foster youth, eliminating
the patchwork of records
that can accumulate over
time in various places
Purpose
Empower youth and
providers to make better
care-related decisions by
facilitating access to key
information across health
and human services
providers through a secure
electronic system that can
be scaled out to include
other providers and youth
themselves
Pilot – Ventura County
Total Population: 830,000
Child Population: 210,000
Foster Youth:
1,000+
Significant number of foster youth, but small enough caseload to
enable a carefully managed and evaluated pilot
Pilot – Ventura County
Leadership
and commitment
to partnerships
Information technology
and strategic planning
infrastructure and resources in place
County-operated system of hospitals and
clinics serving Medi-Cal participants including
foster youth, as well as greater community
Funding & Partners
• Ventura County and private funders will provide 10%;
seeking 90% federal funding through HITECH
• Partners
– The Children’s Partnership
– Ventura County Human Services Agency
– Ventura County Health Care Agency
– State of California
– Verizon Foundation
– Sierra Health Foundation
– Ventura County Medical Research Foundation
– Believe Health, LLC
Process
• Statewide roadmap
• Ventura County assessment
• Development of plan
• Partnering with State for CMS Medicaid HIE
funding
• Submission of IAPD
• Project kickoff
Governance Infrastructure
Steering
Committee
Legal
& Policy
Subcommittee
Business
Operations
Subcommittee
Technical
Subcommittee
Finance
Subcommittee
Comm.
& Outreach
Subcommittee
Ventura County Foster Health Link
Role of central storage?
Role of PHR?
9
Components
• Master Person Index
• Record Locator Service
• “Youth – facing” Portal
• Interfaces with Health Care and Human
Services
Results & Metrics
Health Outcomes
*Better preventative care
*Decreased hospital stays
*Improved clinical conditions
Foster Youth
Youth portal
satisfaction scores
Benefits
Clinicians
Data accessibility
and system usage
Social Workers
Cost Savings
*Decrease in expensive avoidable illness
and hospital stays
*Reduction in pharmacy costs
Decreased data entry
Timeline
24-Month Project
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Implement governance structure
Develop MOUs
Develop technical specifications
Develop and issue RFP
Select software and vendor
Build, test and deploy
Develop financial model
Conduct evaluation
Future
Flexibility
– Architecture will allow for additional information,
such as education records, to be included
– Portal will be created for older youth to access
their own information
– Project can be adapted and implemented by other
counties
Questions?