OCHIN is one of the nation’s cutting edge health information technology (HIT) and service organizations for community based clinics. This has been accomplished thru the collaborative approach to building and sharing a practice management and electronic medical record (EMR) system.

The collaborative allows each community health center to learn from their partners thru sharing the following:

• A single shared medical record for each patient across the collaborative,
• Clinical documentation tools are shared among all partners,
• Reporting tools that measure clinical improvement and/or organizational performance are available to members,
• Members benchmark against each other for productivity, clinical effectiveness and other quality initiatives,
• Members share best practices in billing, claims submittal, population management and a host of clinical improvement areas.

OCHIN as a health center controlled network (HCCN) provides its members economies of scale that allows each clinic to buy quality software products and services that might otherwise be out of reach for an individual community health clinic. The health center network provides the stability and structure needed to support an advanced practice management and electronic medical record system.

In partnership with EPIC Systems, OCHIN has customized the leading practice management and electronic medical record modules for our unique members. This provides the best possible products for Federally Qualified Health Centers, Public Health Departments and/or Rural Health Clinics.

As a part of the network you have access to OCHIN’s highly trained staff and the experience gained through the implementation and maintenance of all of our members. The expertise of our people is what makes OCHIN the most successful health center controlled network in the country.

One of OCHIN’s key objectives is to maintain a single patient medical record across the collaborative. Inside the collaborative the single patient record reduces the chance of errors and duplicates and improves coordination of care and health outcomes.  Outside the collaborative OCHIN is working to provide a seamless record across the larger community including connections to hospitals, labs, imaging centers and more.

A secondary advantage of being a health information exchange (HIE) is the ability to build a comprehensive database across multiple sites of care. One of the challenges of serving the medically underserved populations is the scattered nature of their care process. This database allows us to consolidate information on these populations for the purposes of understanding their unique needs.