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Health Choice Network: A Quarter Century and Counting

BY BARBARA R. designed to improve to home there are 31 members in Florida earned a reputation for leadership in the
FALLON health care for more caring for 3.4 million South Florida resi- integration of health info technology
than 4 million dents in need of a medical home. among members. Services include educa-
A quarter century patients. Nevertheless, from coast to coast, the tion, hosting turnkey HIS systems, pro-
ago, some of us won- Alejandro (Alex) common thread is the mission … Giving viding strategy and planning, network
dered what this thing Romillo, President up for the greater good. The Board and design and support, volume pricing and
called ‘the web’ even and CEO, joined the the majority of administrative and pro- purchasing, contract negotiations and
was. Many decided to organization 21 years fessional team members have been vendor management.
ignore what they could- ago as Director of IT, recruited from participating hospitals, State-of-the-art health information sys-
n’t understand. Luckily, and held several dif- and as such, wear their commitment on tems capture, analyze and leverage data
some South Florida ferent roles including their sleeves. to improve quality and access to care. In
health executives recog- CIO and COO. Long Decades ago, Florida was a pilot state fact, over the past five years, HCN
nized they needed to term service is not for the introduction of HMOs and testing achieved enviable status as the only not
organize around their unusual among the value-based care. HCN was a pioneer for profit and only U.S. finalist for the
perceived weakness - 136 associates and dragging one of the largest business lines Citrix award for innovation, (the Oscars
Information Technology Alejandro Romillo partners at HCN. (health care) into the digital world. of technology). While the network has
(IT) - in order to take “We are lean so we According to Romillo, during the first successfully built a firm foundation on
advantage of its potential strength. They can go fast and we don’t hide outcomes if decade of its existence HCN concentrat- technology, in recent history there has
took the plunge and dove head-first into we fail fast. Our dashboards are red or ed on digitizing paper records which was been a deliberate pivot to the next phase
the unknown. green - no yellow. We have learned that a pain point for most providers. - patient centered quality and value-
Those initial inquisitive four progres- to succeed you expect some wrong turns However, initial reluctance to change based initiatives.
sive thinkers pooled $15,000 each seed but immediately realign and reset the turned into acceptance and finally enthu- Expanded services integrate clinical
money, hired a CEO, Betsey K. Cooke, path to move forward to succeed. siastic support when efficiencies, cost engagement in quality initiatives and
and this collective innovation eventually Empowering our staff to be daringly savings, and reduction in medical errors tracking new options in targeted treat-
was awarded government grants to grow innovative and recognizing their knowl- was proven. ment protocols.
IT and to coordinate managed care and edge and contributions is what keeps us “We let the data speak for itself,” Whether the playing field is artificial
finances. Within a few years the Health challenged and dedicated,” he explained. Romillo explained. “Now we are a leader intelligence, clinical engagement, rev-
Resources and Services Administration The Board has also held true to its ini- in implementing the electronic health enue cycle management, managed care
(HRSA), the primary federal agency for tial ‘boot-strap’, introspective mentality. record, oral health record and soon the contracting or provider credentialing, the
improving health care to people who are All board members have a stake in area behavioral health record. Our expertise HCN team is competitive and plays to
geographically isolated, economically or health care and are committed to sharing in technology enables health care win. “We willingly share promising prac-
medically vulnerable, offered an annual similar practices and disparities to providers to document, communicate tices and failures in order to benefit as a
grant to support Health Choice Network. increase efficiency, access and quality and track medical information, providing group rather than confine ourselves to
HCN has evolved into a nationwide col- care to patients. “We purposely review, patients with faster service, reduced traditional silo environments which curb
laboration among health centers, health share and learn from our wins and our errors and safer transmission of informa- many health care organizations,”
center controlled networks and partners, missteps and that’s what some of us call tion among labs, pharmacies, hospitals Romillo concluded.
in eight states providing key business ‘the secret sauce’,” Romillo revealed. and physicians keeping data security
services, strategic initiatives and the lat- Over the years the Health Choice constantly top-of-mind.” For information, visit www.hcnetwork.org
est in health information technology Network has grown nationwide but close Since its modest beginnings HCN has or call (305) 599-1015.

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