Los Rios Community College District is proud to announce that the ARRA HIT Educating EMR Health Professionals Consortium Grant for the Western United States (Region B) has been awarded to our consortia. 

The HHS Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) awarded an estimated $36 million in cooperative agreements to five regional recipients to establish a multi-institutional consortium within each designated region.  The table below lists the five recipients (lead awardees) of these cooperative agreements. 

The five regional consortia include 70 community colleges in total. First year grant awards are estimated at $36 million.  An additional $34 million is available for year two funding of these programs.

Region	A	B	C	D	E
Lead Awardee of Consortium	Bellevue College	Los Rios Community College District	Cuyahoga Community College District	Pitt Community College	Tidewater Community College
Year 1 Funding Allocation	$3,364,798	$5,435,587	$7,531,403	$10,901,009	$8,492,793

The Region B Consortium is receiving $5,435,587 in Year 1 and potentially $4,310,119 in Year 2, for a total of $9,745,706 over the two-year project period.  The official performance period of the grant is April 2, 2010 through April 1, 2012.  Training at all Consortium member colleges is expected to begin by September 30, 2010.  Each Consortium member college is expected to train an average of 150 students annually.

The grant is designed to get people trained quickly in the kind of computerized health information systems that are being installed by hospitals and medical offices across the western states.   The electronic systems will replace inefficient paper records and allow health providers to quickly review and update a patient’s medical history.    Patients who have had to move, change doctors or required emergency medical attention know the importance of getting medical records transferred quickly and how difficult that is to accomplish in a paper-based system.

“The colleges involved in this grant will work together to implement curriculum designed to cross-train folks with computer or health care backgrounds and prepare them to work in hospitals and doctors offices throughout the Western region,” said Los Rios chancellor Brice Harris.  “This is critically important work that will act to improve health care outcomes and reduce costs and we are thrilled that one of our colleges will be taking the lead.”

The colleges that will share in the training grant include the Los Rios District’s Cosumnes River College, Butte College, College of Southern Nevada, Cypress College, East Los Angeles College, Fresno City College, Honolulu Community College, Mission College, Orange Coast College, Phoenix College, Pima College, Santa Barbara City College, San Diego Mesa College, and Santa Monica College.

Los Rios’ economic and workforce development unit will manage the network of 14 colleges to:  1)  Implement newly established national curriculum in health informatics; 2) recruit and enroll 2,100 students per year in the new curriculum; 3) schedule each program of study to be completed in six months or less; 4) design flexible programs of study that allow each student to enroll in just those courses he or she needs; 5) begin training by September 30, 2010; and 6) link program completers to job opportunities.

The consortium will have a strong working relationship with the health informatics program at UC Davis and will also take advantage of the university’s expertise as a primary healthcare provider.

“It is clear from the number of federal grants we are receiving that our colleges are being seen by state and federal funding sources as educational institutions that can get the job done and get people back to work,” said Los Rios board president Kay Albiani.

The Los Rios Community College District serves more than 90,000 students at its four colleges—American River, Cosumnes River, Folsom Lake and Sacramento City.