Care Spark
Founded in 2005 as part of an overall strategy to improve health outcomes and to reduce inefficiencies in the delivery of health care in the central Appalachian region of southwest Virginia and east Tennessee, CareSpark has developed a collaborative multi-stakeholder not-for-profit governance structure and diversified funding mechanisms to support
- Adoption and use of certified electronic systems (electronic medical records with e-prescribing and clinical decision support) in clinical settings
- Connectivity and interoperability through a secure, standards-based network that supports health information exchange regionally and nationally
- Aggregation and monitoring of data for the purpose of individual and population health improvement
- Alignment of financial incentives for patients, providers and purchasers (employers, public and private health plans)
With support from local, state and national leaders, CareSpark’s system became operational in fall 2008, and houses records for 175,000 patients served by 100 clinicians who currently use the system. Use is projected to grow to nearly 500 clinicians serving nearly 2,000,000 patients by the end of 2009, including those with records in Virginia’s Immunization Registry.
