The California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF) has $300,000 available for six to eight grant awards to implement and test the exchange of laboratory orders using the EHR-Lab Interoperability and Connectivity Specification (ELINCS) Orders.
At the end of the grant period, CHCF expects participating organizations to have fully implemented ELINCS Orders and to be delivering real-time electronic lab orders from ambulatory EHRs to lab information systems. CHCF also expects to demonstrate the impact of the real-time communication of lab data on patient care processes and ideally on clinical outcomes.
CHCF’s goals for this initiative are to:
• Implement the ELINCS Orders specification to deliver laboratory orders to close the communication loop between ambulatory EHRs and laboratories
• Receive feedback from ELINCS Orders pilot implementations to improve the specification enable widespread adoption
• Facilitate adoption of ELINCS Orders by organizations nationally
• Demonstrate models for adoption in diverse settings
• Demonstrate the benefits for communicating lab data electronically
• Support national efforts to standardize the electronic exchange of lab data
Applicants for the grants can be ambulatory care provider organizations, community clinics, clinical laboratories that service ambulatory care provider organizations, HIEs, Health IT vendors, health plans, local initiatives, and county-organized health systems.
As this project will require significant collaboration between provider organizations, clinical information system vendors, and laboratories, CHCF anticipates that organizations will partner on their RFP applications.
The RFP was released December 5, 2011 and a Conference call is scheduled for December 19, 2011 at 10AM. Questions must be submitted by December 30, 2011 with proposals due on January 17, 2012.
To view the RFP, go to www.chcf.org/rfps/2011/rfp-elincs-orders?view=print. For more information, email Glen Moy, Senior Program Officer CHCF at gmoy@chcf.org or call (510) 587-3134.
