OCHIN, a Portland, Ore.-based nonprofit health IT, research, and innovation organization, has formed a partnership with the California Telehealth Network (CTN), a nonprofit provider of telecommunications infrastructure and telehealth services in California. The boards of the two organizations said bringing CTN into the OCHIN family makes additional resources and skills available across California.
OCHIN and CTN both participate in the FCC's Healthcare Connect Fund program, through which they provide telecommunications and health information technology infrastructures that improve healthcare access and quality in rural and medically underserved communities.
OCHIN serves more than 450 organizations comprised of more than 10,000 clinicians across the nation with solutions that improve the integration and delivery of health care services. According to its most recent annual report, its full-time staff grew 33 percent in 2016, reaching 316 employees. Its revenue grew 26 percent to $44.4 million.
CTN is California's leading agency focusing on increasing access to quality health care with a focus on the state’s rural and medically underserved communities.
In addition to subsidized broadband and telehealth equipment, software, and training services currently available from CTN, the OCHIN partnership will bring expanded services to CTN sites including:
• Electronic health and dental record solutions
• 24/7 network operations center (NOC) technical support, network engineering, architecture, security, and risk assessments
• Additional professional services that include practice coaches, workflow engineers, revenue cycle support, outsourced billing services, quality improvement, and compliance services
• Acuere data warehouse solution, which integrates patient level information across multiple EHRs, claims, and social equity data to better enable health care teams to deliver higher quality care and improve health
• Research and analytics services and capacity.
"We are pleased to welcome CTN into the OCHIN family of companies. CTN, with their robust infrastructure and expert staff, perfectly complements the work OCHIN is doing in California,” said Abby Sears, CEO and president of OCHIN, in a prepared statement. “Our combined capabilities and resources strengthen our ability to achieve our mission and ultimately help the safety-net population achieve health equity, and amplifies our collective voice across the nation.”
CTN will continue to operate as a California-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit headquartered in California.
