Partner Spotlight: South Carolina Hospital Association
The South Carolina Hospital Association (SCHA) was founded in 1921 to serve as the collective voice of the state’s hospital community. The Association is a private dues-based organization that consists of 100 member hospitals and health systems and just under 1,000 individual members.
According to SCHA President and CEO, Thornton Kirby, “The lifeblood [of the organization] is relevance.”
In order to stay relevant, the Association updated its mission statement earlier this year. SCHA’s mission is to support its member hospitals in creating a world-class health care delivery system for the people of South Carolina by fostering high quality patient care and serving as effective advocates for the hospital community.
Kirby says that SCHA tries to play the role of convener and collaborator in the hospital community.
According to its website, the Association “is proud to be a part of the state’s hospital industry, adding value to hospitals’ efforts to care for the people of South Carolina.”
SCHA feels that by helping to keep SC’s hospitals healthy, they are helping to keep the state healthy.
Says Kirby, “It’s all about providing quality clinical care to patients.”
CITIA-SC Program Reaches 40% of Goal
The Center for Information Technology Implementation Assistance of South Carolina (CITIA-SC), a Program of Health Sciences South Carolina (HSSC), is proud to announce that it has reached 40% of its goal to sign up 1000 primary health care providers across the state by April of 2011. CITIA-SC is the Regional Extension Center for South Carolina, assisting with the implementation and/or broader use of electronic health record (EHR) systems in primary care practices throughout the state. Earlier this year, HSSC announced that CITIA-SC had been awarded a $5.6M grant from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology to support this program.
Primary health care providers are essential to the health of the country because they work on the front lines to prevent disease, detect it early and manage conditions before they become severe. The integration of health IT into medical practices has the potential to improve quality and care coordination for patients everywhere they receive health care. Providers face many challenges when approaching EHR implementation or more extensive and efficient use ("meaningful use") of an existing EHR.
CITIA-SC and its partner organizations – The Carolinas Center for Medical Excellence, The South Carolina Office of Rural Heath, the South Carolina Primary Health Care Association and the South Carolina Area Health Education Consortium -- work with providers in the areas of health IT education and training, vendor selection, financial consultation and workflow redesign, among others. Ultimately, CITIA-SC aims to help providers achieve EHR meaningful use objectives while maximizing EHR adoption incentives and minimizing financial and administrative burdens associated with implementing and using electronic systems.
This free assistance in achieving meaningful use and understanding Medicare and Medicaid incentive payment programs is available for most primary care providers with prescription privileges who practice in one of the following specialties (Adolescent Medicine, Family Practice, General Practice, Geriatrics, Gynecology, Internal Medicine, OB-GYN or Pediatrics). To apply for up to one year of free assistance in EHR adoption and/or achieving meaningful use, go to www.citiasc.org
and click on “Apply Online.” As of the first week of November, CITIA-SC has signed up more than 400 primary care providers for its program. Another 150 providers are in the process of signing up. Since over half of the available 1000 slots have been committed in the first four months, and more than 100 applications are coming in each month, it is important that interested eligible providers sign up soon.
In addition to providing CITIA-SC updates at the various HSSC-sponsored HIT Summits, CITIA representatives are making presentations to health care providers at each of the South Carolina AHEC’s health IT conferences as a part of the Program’s education and outreach efforts. The next, and final SC AHEC conference of the fall will be held on November 19th at the Coastal Carolina Medical Center in Hardeeville. More information, including registration forms, is available by visiting the SC AHEC
website.
Please Welcome…Mr. Richard Larsen
We are happy to announce a terrific new addition to the HSSC team – Rick Larsen.
Rick is working as a Clinical & Informatics Program Director for HSSC and the South Carolina Clinical and Translational Research Institute (SCTR) at MUSC.
He hails from California and is a graduate of Cal State.
Rick comes to us from Blue Shield of California where he was the Director of Application Development and Integration. He has an excellent track record directing software development, strategy, IT, operations, and employees.
We recently were able to chat with Rick at the HSSC Board Retreat in Clemson and this is what he had to say:
What attracted you to working at HSSC?
I learned about HSSC and its vision through contacts I had made at MUSC. (I’ve done work with MUSC in the past). My whole career has been focused on Health Care IT. I have worked for different companies that focused on the clinical systems for hospitals, Clinical Data Warehouse's, Clinical Trials Management, and Health Insurance systems.
The more I learned about HSSC, the more excited I got that I would be able to use my experience from multiple jobs to make a significant contribution to the group’s success. I really feel that what HSSC is trying to do is very unique and exciting. I feel lucky to be a part of it.
Since my arrival here, I have found that the HSSC team is a great group of people to work with. The people can make or break how you feel about a job and these folks are really great!
What attracted you to South Carolina?
I have lived in California pretty much all of my life. In all my business and personal travels in the United States, I’ve always put Charleston at the top of my list of places I would like to live. My wife is from Alabama and has family across Georgia and Alabama. When we decided that we would like to get closer to family in the southeast, it was an easy decision to focus on the Charleston area.
Tell us about your family.
I have a wonderful wife named Allison and two great kids -- Ben who is eleven and in 6th grade and Kate who is a 4th grader.
Our family really loves activities around the water (e.g., swimming, boating, and surfing). Allison loves running and yoga. Kate loves all animals and really enjoys horseback riding. Ben likes playing sports and video games (like most boys his age).
What do you look forward to most in your new position?
Being able to make a real positive influence towards the success of HSSC.
What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
Tagging along with the kids for their activities; kite-surfing, surfing, and going out on dates with my wonderful wife.
HIT Summit on November 18th
HCTI Task Force on December 9th
Be aware of these Causes in November
Please take a minute to check out these websites and see what’s going on in this month.
(Click on the link below)
American Diabetes Month
COPD Awareness Month
Diabetic Eye Disease Month
Lung Cancer Awareness Month
National Family Caregivers Month
National Healthy Skin Month
National Hospice Palliative Care Month
Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month
Prematurity Awareness Month
Pulmonary Hypertension Awareness Month
Who We Are
Health Sciences South Carolina (HSSC) is a dynamic statewide collaborative of South Carolina universities and hospitals that seeks to improve the health and economic wellbeing of the state through advances in research, education and clinical care.
- Clemson University
- Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center
- Medical University of South Carolina
- Palmetto Health
- Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System
- University of South Carolina
- AnMed Health
- McLeod Health
- Self Regional Healthcare
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