Utah Office of Public Health Informatics Description

Description of Office of Public Health Informatics
Center for Health Data, Utah Department of Health
http://health.utah.gov/phi/
June 20, 2012
The mission of the Office of Public Health Informatics is to promote, foster and coordinate
innovative collaborative solutions for the optimal use of information and technology
to improve the health of all Utahns.
Organizational Structure and Background:
The Utah Office of Public Health Informatics (OPHI) in Center for Health Data was established in April
2007 by the Executive Director’s Office (EDO) of Utah Department of Health. In 2005, the Utah
legislature created a new Department of Technology Services (DTS) in the state of Utah. In 2006, all
state agencies transferred their IT personnel and budgets to DTS according to the law. In 2007, UDOH’s
budget request to create the division-level Product Managers failed, which led to the EDO’s decision to
create OPHI (See Attachment 1 – UDOH Organizational Chart).
Legal Responsibilities:
OPHI’s legal responsibilities are defined in Utah Health Code §26-9f Utah Digital Health Service
Commission Act, to provide informatics staff support; UDOH General Authority §26-1-37 duty, to
establish standards for the electronic exchange of clinical health information; and §26-1-30(bb) to
coordinate statewide patient identity validation. OPHI has the rule-making authority for Administrative
Rule R380-70 Standards for Electronic Exchange of Clinical Health Information.
Each year, Utah Digital Health Service Commission will make legislative policy recommendations related
to statewide e-health initiatives. OPHI provides staff support to the Commission, UDOH-EDO, legislation
sponsors, and the public interest groups in policy-making (http://health.utah.gov/phi/?formname=laws).
Positions and Job Descriptions:
OPHI has five full-time positions, one full-time contractor, and one dotted-line affiliate (See Attachment
2).
OPHI Director Wu Xu is also the Deputy Director for Center for Health Data. Besides oversight of OPHI
projects/programs, she coordinates activities for the UDOH HIT Strategic Council, UDOH HIT Operational
Council, and UDOH Deputy Director/State HIT Coordinator’s Monthly Updates Meetings. Wu is also
participating in the bi-weekly meetings with the DTS Health IT Director and UDOH Deputy Director and
coordinating department-wide IT security assessment and improvement.
She also leads public health informatics workforce development by creating new informatics positions or
organizing training to current public health personnel. Supported by EDO, OPHI have worked with Utah
Department of Human Resource Management and Department of Technology Services for four years to
establish three new job classifications for the state of Utah:
- Health Informaticist, https://online.dhrm.utah.gov/jobdesc/JobDescription.jsp?jfldr_id=29576
- Senior Health Informaticist, https://online.dhrm.utah.gov/jobdesc/JobDescription.jsp?jfldr_id=29577
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- Health Informaticist Manager https://online.dhrm.utah.gov/jobdesc/JobDescription.jsp?jfldr_id=29578
OPHI has developed a virtual network of health informatics in UDOH through above collaborative
coordination and its monthly Public Health Informatics Brown Bags and Awards
(http://health.utah.gov/phi/?formname=brownbag).
State HIE Program Manager Francesca Lanier is in charge of the ONC Utah HIE Cooperative Agreement
grant and its sub-contract to the State Designated HIE Entity – Utah Health Information Network for
implementing the statewide clinical Health Information Exchange (cHIE). She also manages the UDOH
Gateway, which is the UDOH-wide integrated data exchange portal/interfaces. Currently the Medicaid
sends their clients medication history through the Gateway to the cHIE. Utah immunization registry and
newborn screening programs have been developing their data exchanges through the Gateway to cHIE,
then to providers. More public health data exchanges are planned for the Gateway as well.
Francesca also serves on the UDOH data security policy development group and provides technical
assistance to UDOH public health programs to understand the IT privacy and security requirements for
their applications. She has worked more closely with the service-oriented bureaus such as Bureaus of
Children with Special Health Care and Primary Care and Rural Health. Her expertise is in policy,
requirements and project/product/portfolio management.
Informatics Innovation Program Manager Jeffrey Duncan has a strong background, business and
technical expertise in large public health information systems, especially Vital Records and Statistics and
Medical Examiners’ information systems. Currently he is leading several innovative informatics projects,
some of which won national awards. They include: 1) Public Health Master Person Index (NIH funded
grant), 2) Electronic Physician Order of Life Sustaining Treatment (ONC-Beacon Community grant), 3)
Developing interoperability between vital records and electronic health records (IHE Connectathon and
HL7 standards development), and 4) Integrating birth certificate and Early Hearing Detection
Intervention program data (CDC Contract).
Jeff is in charge of the UDOH Inventory of IT systems and applications and the UDOH Service Level
Agreement with the Department of Technology Services. He also serves as the health informatics
manager for Bureau of Vital Records and Medical Examiners’ Office. Jeff is our informatics architect and
strategist for adopting innovative technologies. Currently he is developing a repository for health
department information systems metadata known as Public Health Records and Information System
Management Knowledgebase (PRISM_KB).
Health Program Specialist Humaira Shah supports OPHI operation, contracts, and Utah Digital Health
Service Commission’s activities. She also provides administrative support to University of Utah Research
Center of Excellence (CoE) in Public Health Informatics (http://www.rockymountaincoe.org/) and the
Community of Innovators in Epidemiology and Public Health Informatics (coi-EPHI)
(http://www.phconnect.org/group/CoiePHI/).
Humaira coordinates various informatics meetings for OPHI, CHD, and EDO in UDOH and with external
partners. Through ongoing broad and diverse public communications, OPHI has been facilitating
collective learning and growing experiences in health informatics for UDOH.
CDC/CSTE Applied Public Health Informatics Fellow Esther Munene will work with OPHI for 12 months.
Currently she has been working with the Division of Disease Control and Prevention Bureau of
Epidemiology to develop a visualization tool for case investigation and outbreak control. Her secondary
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projects include the development of the coi-EPHI’s Public Health Informatics Problem Bank
http://uniphi.chpc.utah.edu/uc/?usecaseid=1184, and developing new innovative informatics projects
or grant writing.
Esther is the first fellow assigned to a state public health agency from the first class of the CDC/CSTE
APHI Fellowship Program. OPHI would like to learn from working with Esther to become a sustainable
training site for future new public health informaticists.
Technology Consultant Zhiwei Liu is a senior software engineer with the University of Utah. He was the
developer of the Indicator-Based Information System for Public Health (IBIS-PH)
(http://ibis.health.utah.gov/) and the web application, “WebKids” for Utah Statewide Immunization
Information System (USIIS). OPHI manages his contract with the university in behalf of multiple UDOH
programs. Zhiwei participates in the university-led new developments on public health informatics tools
and serves as a new technology tester and adopter for UDOH.
Affiliated Informatics Portfolio Manager Jon Reid was an OPHI member closely working with the Division
of Disease Control and Prevention. When the CDC ELC grant requires the states to hire informatics staff,
Bureau of Epidemiology hired Jon. OPHI still closely work with Jon and his informatics unit on public
health communicable case reporting through the Beacon Community grant, Meaningful Use, and Center
of Excellence in Public Health Informatics.
A virtual matrix informatics network in UDOH has emerged through the past five years of OPHI’s work.
Each division has a couple of leading informaticists working with OPHI periodically on various
department-wide projects, planning or review efforts (see Attachment 3).
Current Projects and Budget:
All OPHI projects share two features: It is a multi-division or department-wide project; and it focuses on
integration and/or interoperability. In this way, we provide added value or value-added service to
existing business and IT capacity and will not cause any tension with our partners.
Currently 97% of OPHI budget comes from the federal grants. The major grants are the ONC HIE CA,
Beacon Community, NIH statewide Master Person Index. EDO is under consideration to increase state
funds to OPHI for state specific functions.
Please go to our web site at http://health.utah.gov/phi/ to see OPHI’s projects under the tags of “eHealth” and “Projects.” Our web site has secure wiki-type functions and allows all OPHI members to
timely add, edit and publish their own project information online.
Strategic Vision and Goals:
UDOH has four Strategic Goals: Become healthiest people; Put health in health reform; Transform
Medicaid; and become a great organization (See Attachment 4). Informatics is an innovative force and
efficient tool. OPHI will use informatics solutions to support all four goals with an emphasis of “a great
organization” and “health in health reform.”
The UDOH Executives has been very supportive to OPHI’s work and initiatives. They also ask OPHI to
support the Governor’s and EDO’s priorities periodically. For example, OPHI has been involved in
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assisting Medicaid to respond the recent health data breach, leading the public health data security selfassessment, and participating in the discussion of redesigning the relationship between UDOH and DTS.
We expect the OPHI’s responsibilities will be expanded in near future.
Please contact Wu Xu at [email protected] for questions.
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Executive Director
W. David Patton, Ph.D.
Deputy Director
Medicaid & Health Financing
Michael Hales, MPA
Deputy Director
(State Epidemiologist)
Robert T. Rolfs, MD, MPH
Division of Disease Control
and Prevention
Teresa Garrett
Unified State
Laboratories:
Public Health
Robyn
Atkinson
Office of the
Medical
Examiner
Todd Grey
Division of Family Health
and Preparedness
Marc Babitz
Center for
Health Data
Barry Nangle
Bureau of Maternal &
Child Health
Nan Streeter
Office of Health
Care Statistics
Keeley Cofrin Allen
DHRM
Cassandra
Opheikens
DTS
Greg Mead
Budget – Dave Rabiger
Finance – Debbie Headden
Office of Fiscal
Operations
Shari Watkins
Office of Public
Information/
Marketing
Tom Hudachko
Assistant Division Director
Nathan Checketts
Assistant Division Director
Gail Rapp
Bureau of Eligibility
Policy
Jeff Nelson
Bureau of Coverage and
Reimbursement Policy
John Curless
Bureau of Financial
Services
Tracy Luoma
Health Policy and
Reform Initiatives
Coordinator
Norman Thurston
Bureau of Medicaid
Operations
Paula McGuire
Bureau of Long Term
Care
Tonya Hales
Employee Support – Jenniel Allen
Bureau of Chemical &
Environmental Svcs
Sanwat Chaudhuri
Bureau of Epidemiology
Jennifer Brown
Bureau of Children with
Special Health Care
Needs
Holly Williams
Bureau of Forensic
Toxicology
Gambrelli Layco
Bureau of Health
Promotion
Heather Borski
Bureau of Emergency
Medical Services &
Preparedness
Paul Patrick
Bureau of Laboratory
Improvement
David Mendenhall
Bureau of Facility
Licensing, Certification
Resident Assessment
Joel Hoffman
Bureau of Microbiology
Barbara Jepson
Bureau of Child
Development
Teresa Whiting
Bureau of Primary Care
Steve Ipsen
February 8, 2012
- Patient Safety
- Indian Health Affairs
- Health Disparities Reduction
Office of Public
Health Assessment
Kathryn Marti
Office of Public
Health Informatics
Wu Xu
Office of Vital Records
& Statistics
Janice Houston
Office of
Community,
Constituent and
Government Affairs
Deborah Turner
Office of
Organizational
Development and
Performance
Improvement
Jeff Mulitalo
Bureau of Managed
Health Care
Emma Chacon
Organizational Chart for Office of Public Health Informatics
Center for Health Data
Utah Department of Health
June 21, 2012
Wu Xu
Deputy Director, Center for
Health Data
Director, Office of Public
Health Informatics
Humaira Shah
Health Program Specialist
III
Jon Reid
Informatic Portfolio
Manager
Bureau of Epidemiology
Francesca
Lanier
State HIE Program
Manager
Jeffrey Duncan
Esther Munene
Informatics Innovation
Manager
CDC/CSTE Informatics
Fellow
Zhiwei Liu
Technology Consultant
UDOH Innovative Informatics Projects and Business Area Matrix, June 2012
Enterprise Informatics Projects/Products/Programs
ONC Meaningf Beacon Beacon
HIE CA ul Use HIE-ELR ePOLST
Business Area
OPHI
Lead
X
Fund
Lead
Newborn
Screening
HIE
MPI
X
Lead
Center of
Excellence CHIPRA Informatics
CHIC
at UofU
Lead
X
UDOH
HIT
Council
Coordinator
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Immunization
X
X
X
Epidemiology
X
X
Lead
X
CHSCN
X
Lead
X
Vital Records
X
X
X
All Payer Data
X
X
Pub. Hlth Assessment
X
EMS
X
X
X
Medicaid
X
Lead
X
X
Lead
Others
Lead = Lead the project; X = Participant; Fund = provide funding
HIE = Health Information Exchange
ePOLST = Electronic Physician Order for Life Sustaining Treatment
ELR = Electronic Laboratory Reporting
MPI = Master Person Index
Gateway = Electronic information exchange interfaces
CHIC = Child Health Improvement Collaborative
IT/Data
Security
Assessment
UDOH
Gateway
Brown
Bags &
Training
Lead
Lead
Lead
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Strategic Plan
2012
Introduction
Health is a precious commodity for all people of Utah. It provides a richer context for life experiences and is a driver for a
number of key community and economic issues.
Public health is a community focus on health. Where a physician works to improve the health of an individual, public health
professionals strive to ensure the health of entire populations.
W. David Patton, PhD
Executive Director
Utah Department of Health
The Utah Department of Health is an agency with a strong
reputation. Our work involves facilitating conditions for healthy
communities. We do this in a number of ways, including
through research, raising awareness, and helping underserved
populations.
By so doing, we ensure that our communities have the best
chance to experience the benefits of good health.
This strategic plan represents the work of public health professionals who have carefully considered and prioritized how our
agency can best contribute to public health in Utah. We are
sharing this plan with our partners, community leaders, and
the public as a means to share our desires for public health in
Utah and invite their interest in our goals.
We are committed to building upon our successes. It is our
desire to engage and empower our committed staff, find new
ways to achieve goals, and make meaningful, positive contributions to the health of all people of Utah.
Who we are & what we do...
The Utah Department of Health strives to improve the lives of all Utahns.
We work with our partners to create healthy and safe communities and
eliminate health disparities as part of a comprehensive public health system.
We use data-driven, evidence-based interventions to promote healthy lifestyles and behaviors; detect and prevent injury and disease; and improve
access to quality health care for all people of Utah, including the state’s
most vulnerable populations.
We monitor the health of the population by collecting, analyzing, and sharing data.
Our mission...
Is to protect the public’s health through preventing avoidable illness, injury, disability,
and premature death; assuring access to affordable, quality health care; and promoting healthy lifestyles.
Our vision...
Is for Utah to be a place where all people can enjoy the best health possible, where all
can live and thrive in healthy and safe communities.
Our Values
These values serve as a guide to our actions and our decision-making. We will hold ourselves accountable to these values as we work to achieve our mission and vision.
Collaboration We engage each other, our partners, and the people of Utah in decision-
making, planning, and integrated effort.
Effective
We are efficient and timely in making decisions and taking actions. We do the right things well in order to produce the greatest health benefit and the greatest return on the public investment.
Evidence-based
We use science and current, accurate data to guide our priorities and en-
hance the value of our actions.
Innovation We foster creativity to meet challenges and continually identify opportu-
nities for improvement.
Integrity
We are honest and straightforward with each other, our partners, and
the people of Utah. We embrace high standards of ethical conduct, re-
sponsiveness, and quality performance.
Respect
We honor and appreciate each other, our partners, and the people of Utah.
Service
We strive to provide health programs that benefit the people of Utah and are consistent with their values and diversity. We seek to exceed internal and external customer expectations.
Transparency We operate with open communication and processes.
Trustworthy We are ethical, competent, and effective stewards of the public interest, public confidence, and public funds.
Our Strategic Goals
Healthiest People...
The people of Utah will be the healthiest in the country.
Health in Health Reform...
Health reform will reflect a compassionate, humane, and cost-effective
focus on the health of all the people of Utah by increasing access to
care, expanding the use of evidence-based prevention interventions,
and improving quality.
Transform Medicaid...
Utah Medicaid will be a respected innovator in employing health care
delivery and payment reforms that improve the health of Medicaid
clients and keep expenditure growth at a sustainable level.
A Great Organization...
The UDOH will be recognized as a leader in government and public
health for its excellence in performance. The organization will continue to grow its ability to attract, retain, and value the best professionals and public servants.
Healthiest People
Strategies
• Engage public health partners, stakeholders, and the people of Utah to improve our shared
understanding of the determinants of health and to identify statewide priorities for health
improvement.
The Department will work with its partners to develop an accepted set of health indicators that can be used to measure the overall health of the people of Utah, and a plan to
identify priorities to improve the health of the people of Utah.
It will also strive to create a general understanding of the relationship between an individual’s health and their social and physical environments.
• Focus efforts on women to achieve healthier pregnancies and births.
Working to decrease tobacco use during pregnancy,
reducing the teen birth rate, and ensuring women
get early prenatal care and appropriate obstetric
care will lead to healthier babies. Additionally, decreasing rates of prematurity and low birth weight
will help babies grow into healthy children.
• Promote environments (physical, policy, cultural) that facilitate healthy behaviors, especially
focusing on active living and healthy eating, to address the obesity epidemic and associated
health outcomes.
Activities like ensuring schools offer healthy food alternatives and remove foods with
low nutritional value from vending machines will help address the childhood obesity
epidemic. To reduce obesity among adults, the Department will actively support approaches such as working to list caloric and nutritional information on restaurant menus
and increasing the number of walking and biking paths in communities.
We will also continue to vigorously work to reduce the use of tobacco products among all
Utahns.
Health in Health Reform
Strategies
• Eliminate barriers to and promote incentives for evidence-based, high quality prevention,
early diagnosis and treatment, health education, and access to care.
The Department will work with its partners to improve the ratio of primary care providers, with special attention being paid to areas where geographic, racial or ethnic disparities exist. Increasing public and provider use of high-quality prevention, diagnosis and
treatment services will also be a top priority.
• Infuse prevention and health into the public discussion that is currently focused primarily on
reducing health care costs.
Partnering with business and health reform coalitions will help infuse prevention and
overall health into the health reform discussion. Elected officials and business owners
must also be aware of the economic and health benefits of preventive services. Encouraging employers to adopt healthy workplace policies will also lead to a healthier, more
productive workforce.
• Lead all those involved in the health system to rely on high quality data to improve individual and community health outcomes.
At least 80 percent of the state’s health care providers should
be using electronic health records to improve prevention,
early diagnosis, and treatment. Individuals should also have
better access to their electronic health records in order to
make well-informed decisions about their health.
This will require the Department to improve its own systems
and its ability to exchange data with internal and external
partners. Better access to cost and quality data will help providers, payers, and individuals identify areas of strength and
opportunities for improvement.
Transform Medicaid
Strategies
• Implement the Utah Medicaid Accountable Care Organization model.
This model will establish a medical home for each client and provide incentives to clients who
maintain healthy behaviors and use health care services appropriately. It will also restructure
the payment model to reward providers for delivering the best health outcomes.
• Promote health management for Medicaid clients.
Better health management includes the increased use of preventive services, implementing
evidence-based disease management, and providing self-management education for clients.
Medicaid will also optimize and expand its collaboration with other public health programs.
• Establish new and expand existing quality standards to improve health outcomes for Medicaid clients.
Medicaid will better utilize available data systems to evaluate utilization and
value in the program compared to other populations. Best practices for successful outcomes, including those from other states, other plans, and other
parts of the private sector will be researched to determine where efforts will
have the highest impact on client health.
The program will also work to identify and address health disparities by geographic location and socioeconomic status.
An increased focus on children will expand Medicaid quality measures to
include all the measures identified in the CHIP Reauthorization Act.
A Great Organization
Strategies
• Maximize organizational performance both for external partners and to make
this a great place to work. Realize a health department with the highest level of
performance, account­ability, and value delivery for the State of Utah.
A competency toolkit will be created to help mentor leaders in program management, process improvement, and achieving optimal results through people. The
balanced scorecard will be upgraded to ensure all programs align with highest
levels of value-delivery and have improve­ment strategies.
• Produce and demonstrate tangible performance improvements and efficiency gains in key
areas and services.
The agency will assess and emphasize improvement opportunities as Department priorities. The
Department will provide internal consulting and mentoring on prioritized process improvement
projects. Results of all performance improvement efforts will be shared with all interested parties (updated balanced scorecard).
• Create a supportive work environment—strengthen our investment in the workforce to develop capacity, organizational learning, and value our employees.
Implement a management and leadership mentoring program catered specifically to the Utah
Department of Health. Other valuable competencies will be cultivated in a training program that
grows our professional workforce.
W. David Patton, PhD
Executive Director
Robert Rolfs, MD, MPH
Deputy Director
Michael Hales, MPA
Deputy Director
Teresa Garrett, RN, MS
Director, Division of Disease
Control & Prevention
Marc Babitz, MD
Director, Division of Family
Health & Preparedness
Michael Hales, MPA
Director, Division of Medicaid
& Health Financing
Barry Nangle, PhD
Director, Center for Health Data
www.health.utah.gov