Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Texas Posts Grant Notice

The Texas Office of Rural Community Affairs (ORCA) has posted information on the Texas Rural Health Technology Grants for FY 2009. This grant program supports the development of clinical systems and capital equipment for Critical Access Hospitals. ORCA seeks projects that will address at least one of the program goals and at least one of the objectives.

The goals are to expand access to care in rural areas, improve the quality of care and patient safety, provide more efficiency in delivering, coordinating, and integrating healthcare, and improve hospital finances and sustainability.

The program objectives are to implement HIT, EHRs, telemedicine or telepharmacy applications, expand access to health services, reduce health disparities, improve workflow and productivity, enhance hospital viability, and provide for cost efficiencies.

Specifically, the funds are to provide EHRs, physician ordered entry systems, bar-coding systems, data or laboratory information systems, IT/MIS applications, telehealth, telemedicine, telepharmacy, or tele-education. Funds can be used for medical laboratory imaging technologies or services, to improve hospital performance, and produce quality improvement systems or tools.

Only Critical Access Hospitals in Texas that have not been awarded the ORCA Technology Grant in FY 2008 are eligible to apply for the FY 2009 grants. The grants are supported by the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Grant Program and will be awarded by HRSA. A total of $150,000 is available for this program and grants will not exceed $30,000 per grantee. The deadline for the grant applications is December 5, 2008.

For more information, go to http://www.orca.state.tx.us/, or call 1-800-544-2042, or 1-512-936-6701.