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2007 Award Process

Drawing from a 2007 funding pool of $1,000,000, WHIC has awarded grants up to $20,000 each for the acquisition, implementation and expansion of health information technology by medical offices, clinics and small hospitals. The grant recipients for 2007 were announced October 15, 2007.

2007 WHIC Award Recipients

The grant funding comes from First Choice Health and the Washington State Health Care Authority. Other WHIC partners are Qualis Health and the Puget Sound Health Alliance, which provide inkind services. We encourage other organizations to help fund the awards and support WHIC. More about WHIC.

In 2007, awards to smaller primary care practices and critical access hospitals will fund a portion of the cost of acquisition and expansion of health information technology (health IT) systems.  Funding is also being provided for community-wide connectivity projects and for development of systems that facilitate patient access to their health information.  Specifically, funding is awarded for projects that address the following:

• Initial practice or facility health IT acquisition and implementation support (e.g., technology, infrastructure, consulting, workflow redesign)
• Increased functionality of health IT already in operation:
• Purchase and/or implementation of additional modules (including decision support tools, computerized physician order entry, clinician feedback mechanisms, and chronic disease registry functions)
• Data analysis and reporting capabilities
• Connectivity efforts in a given community (e.g., infrastructure upgrades, primary care/hospital data integration/interfacing, ancillary communications)
• Expanded patient access to their own medical information (personal health record features) and increased patient engagement in their care.  
  
  

Process Overview.  Once the application process is complete, applicants are notified of their status by letter and e-mail. Applicants are either offered immediate funding, placed into a contingency pool to receive funding (should those applicants offered immediate funding not be able to accept their award for any reason), or advised that their application will not receive funding in this award cycle. All applicants offered immediate funding will be contacted by representatives of either First Choice Health or the Health Care Authority.

For 2007, applications were due on August 15, 2007. The following application materials to apply for a health IT grant were used:

2007 Funding Announcement and Background Information (PDF)

2007 Application (PDF) NOTE: Same content as the "Application Form" below

2007 Application Form (Word form)

2007 Planning and Implementation Checklist (PDF)

2007 Increased Functionality Checklist (PDF)

2007 Determining Whether Your Practice is Ready to Adopt Health IT (PDF)

2007 Questions and Answers (PDF) (last updated 7/20/07)

NOTE: For additional useful resources developed by DOQIT expert consultant Pat Lohman, see Implementing Your Health Information System and Preparing to Select A Health Information System.

Questions about the awards or the process?  Please first review the list of common Questions and Answers which is frequently updated. Contact us by email if you have additional questions.

Questions? Please contact us by email.