CHICAGO – The Cherokee Indian Hospital in North Carolina and the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services each implemented healthcare IT to improve population health outcomes in their communities and the work processes to support that improvement.

For their efforts, they were awarded the HIMSS 2008 Nicholas E. Davies Public Health Awards in June, and several leaders of the effort were at HIMSS09 Tuesday to tell their story.

The New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services' IT team designed and implemented a patient-centric, Web-enabled, standards-based, PHIN-compliant system that enabled integrated electronic lab reporting, extensive case and outbreak management and administrative flexibility.

"At the end of the day, the main purpose of a public health application is having fully integrated workflow processes for case management," said Simi Octania-Pole, director of data management.

The system was well designed, but it was recognized for the outcomes it achieved, including improved timeliness and response of disease reporting and follow-up, minimization of underreporting, improvement in data quality by enhancing communication and report completeness and empowerment of system users. Ongoing training, a steering committee representing all stakeholders, adherence to standards and collaboration between public health and IT staff were critical to the system's success, she said.

The Cherokee Indian Hospital leveraged the Indian Health Services' Resource Patient Management System Electronic Health Record to achieve better outcomes of its population. While the system was designed by the hospital, Commander Michael Toedt, MD, noted, "It's how you use the EHR that is critical."

The hospital linked to systems such as VISTA imaging. "Functionality is important," Toedt said.

The hospital developed a strategic plan and set target goals, which were measured by the reporting functionality. The hospital saw a 47 percent improvement in tobacco screening, 10 percent in breast cancer screening and 79 percent improvement in domestic violence screening, among other measures.