CHC Corner

From: Matthew King  The Community Health Centers in AZ are forming the Arizona Integrated Network (AIN) to formally integrate information technology services, financial management, and clinical initiatives. We are have included VistA Office in our EHR evaluation.

From: John Leo Zimmer  The Council Bluffs Community Health Center is assembling the hardware and software to implement VistA Office or FOIA VistA in this one small center. We hope to participate in an open development process that tailors VistA to community health centers' special needs.

From Hardhats Listserve:
Here are some recurrent questions us nontechies have about VistA:

1) Is Mumps a serious limitation to complete EHR functionality, code maintainence, HL7, or PMS interfacing?

2) What is the fundamental difference between a relational database and a hierarchical database and how does that effect the end-user? (Should we even care? If so why?)

3) How hard is it for non-Mumps IT personnel to learn Mumps/VistA and are there enough experienced VistA programmers (or former VistA programmers) to consult or be hired to non-VA projects?

4) What other concerns should we have regarding adopting VistA?

5) Are any Community Health Centers currently utilizing VistA?