From The Orange County Register
By Deepa Bharath/Staff Writer
Children’s Hospital of Orange County will receive $17.7 million in federal funding over the next four years, starting with $4.8 million in 2016, the Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday.
The award is part of $685 million in funding that is expected to reach 39 national and regional health care networks and support organizations. The program is aimed at equipping more than 140,000 clinicians with the tools and support needed to step up quality of care, increase patients’ access to information and reduce costs, officials said.
CHOC is the only hospital from Orange County to receive this funding.
Dr. Michael Weiss, who heads the division of population health at CHOC, said the money will go toward training, support and technical assistance for physicians in Orange and San Diego counties, serving about 1.5 million children.
CHOC will partner with Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego to implement the program, he said.
“What’s unique about this program is that it goes beyond the walls of our hospital,” Weiss said. “We only see a small percentage of children at the hospital. With this funding, we’ll be able to reach out to pediatricians who are serving the community.”
Some of the support services include providing coaches to help practicing physicians better manage preventive care, offering real-time notification alerts for clinicians caring for high-risk patients, improving screening and treatment for mental health issues and substance abuse, and centralizing data reporting.
CHOC was selected from an extremely competitive field of applicants, said Dr. Patrick Conway, chief medical officer for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which is administering the funds.
“CHOC is among the pool of candidates that brought forth the best ideas,” he said. “We wanted to include a diversity of practices and pediatrics is an area that is often overlooked and underserved.”
Contact the writer: 714-796-7909 or dbharath@ocregister.com
