Who We Are
Our Goal Is to Make Rhode Island the Safest Place in the Nation to Receive Care - the Key to that is Health IT
The Rhode Island Quality Institute (RIQI) is a collaboration of stakeholders in the community with the common goal of significantly improving the quality, value and safety of healthcare in the state. Our public and private partners include hospitals, health insurers, businesses, consumer groups, academia, and state and federal government.
Founded in 2001 by then-Attorney General and current U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, RIQI is a unique forum where virtually all major stakeholders come together to collaboratively advance healthcare through health IT initiatives.
How We’re Driving Health IT
Some of our current initiatives and accomplishments
EHR Adoption: We are your RI Regional Extension Center (RI REC)
In 2010, the federal government endowed RIQI with Health Information Technology Act (HITECH) funds to help spur the use of electronic health records (EHRs) in the state. Designated as Rhode Island’s Regional Extension Center (RI REC) for EHRs, we assist providers along the process of adoption and achieving meaningful use standards to improve the quality and safety of care. We keep a particular focus on the priority primary care physicians that face financial constraints or other barriers to making health IT advancements.
RIQI first began addressing EHR adoptions in 2004 when it partnered with Rhode Island physicians and the RI Department of Health to better understand the barriers to EHRs and develop standards and metrics for tracking adoptions.
As part of its EHR campaign, RIQI partnered with COMSORT to conduct a survey of more than 3,000 Rhode Island physicians to determine the state’s leaders and trusted peers on EHRs and other health IT issues. From that survey, we identified a group of “Health IT Physician Leaders” who worked with us to develop an EHR adoption guidebook called Take Your Practice Digital – EHR Adoption. The guidebook, with cases studies and lessons from our Health IT Physician Leaders, continues to be a valued educational source for practices undergoing the transformation around the country.
Our most recent physician resource is our website, DocEHRtalk.org. The site was launched in 2009 as an online community and knowledge center for physicians and practice administrators to find and share information regarding EHRs and health IT. Our interactive forums, peer-to-peer discussions and Q&A sessions promote a smoother path toward successful EHR adoption in Rhode Island and beyond. It’s also the new home of RI REC and its EHR tools and services.
Health Information Exchange: Brining you currentcare
RIQI is Rhode Island’s designated Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO), which governs the state’s Health Information Exchange (HIE). In this role, RIQI developed and manages currentcare, the state’s HIE network. currentcare is a secure electronic network that gives doctors and other healthcare providers access to your most up-to-date health information right away so they can treat you with the best possible care. currentcare helps drives down healthcare costs by eliminating duplicative tests and provides potentially life-saving medical information to doctors in emergency situations. The network is a collaborative effort between RIQI, the Rhode Island Department of Health, community and physician groups, health insurers and hospitals in the state.
e-Rx: Making Rhode Island a leader in electronic prescribing
In 2003, Rhode Island became the first state to fully embrace the quality and safety of electronic prescribing.
RIQI’s pioneering e-Rx initiative matched Rhode Island with Surescripts to make it the beta-test home of the first-ever end-to-end electronic prescribing system.
Today, 100% of the state’s pharmacies are now capable of processing e-prescriptions, and Rhode Island has been nationally ranked #1 or #2 in advancing e-prescribing each year since the rankings were established in 2006.
The initiative takes direct aim at the 1.5 million Americans that are sickened, injured or killed each year by errors in prescribing, dispensing or taking medications. The total cost to the system for these mistakes adds up to more than $3.5 billion.
The RI Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Collaborative: Saving lives through safer hospitals
RIQI has taken serious action toward reducing the 2 million infections acquired in U.S. hospitals each year that kill almost 90,000 people and add more than $30.5 billion to the nation’s healthcare costs. In partnership with Quality Partners of Rhode Island and the Hospital Association of Rhode Island, RIQI initiated the RI ICU Collaborative to dramatically decrease these complications, deaths and costs. Rhode Island is the first and only state to have 100% hospital participation in such an effort, and successfully covers every adult ICU bed in the state. As a result of the program, there has been a 62% statewide reduction in deadly central-line associated bloodstream infections and a 21% drop in ventilator-associated pneumonia.
For more information on our goals and efforts, visit riqi.org.
275 Promenade Street
Suite 225
Providence, RI 02908
401.276.9141
currentcare Hotline
888.858.4815
DocEHRtalk.org Hotline
401.276.9141 x283