Federal Grant Will Support Upgrade Of Network's EHR, $850,000 To Support Integrated Care Across Bassett's Rural Region

Cooperstown, N.Y. – Bassett Healthcare Network’s efforts to improve and integrate the care of patients across the nine counties it serves received a substantial boost recently thanks to a $852,490 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The grant, administered through HHS’s Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), seeks to help rural health networks adopt Health Information Technology and certified Electronic Health Records (EHR). 

Vice President and Chief Information Officer Scott Groom says, “As Bassett patients travel across the health care spectrum, it is important for their health care information to be immediately accessible to all authorized health care providers. Right now, the electronic health records of different organizations in the network are at different stages of implementation and they don’t all ‘speak’ to each other. This grant will allow us to address the problem.”

The HRSA grant will be administered over the next three years and will be used to purchase equipment, install broadband networks and provide training for staff. The funding will enable Bassett to establish interoperable EHRs at A.O. Fox Hospital, At Home Care, Inc., and Community Health Center in Cherry Valley. Ultimately, the grant will help Bassett Healthcare Network achieve more timely and accurate health information exchange, better management of care transitions, enhanced care coordination, and cost-containment through shared services and economies of scale.