The College of St. Scholastica

School of Nursing, School of Health Sciences and the Center for Healthcare Innovation

Through its health informatics related educational offerings, research activities associated with identifying EHR best practices, and  service on state and national HIT and EHR related working groups, St. Scholastica faculty and staff have developed the knowledge and resources to assist organizations achieve meaningful use.   

Education: St. Scholastica through its School of Nursing, School of Health Sciences and Center for Healthcare Innovation (CHI) bring extensive experience in health care workforce preparation to the REACH program, including a decade of experience with distance-based education.  In 2002, they pioneered the implementation of an EHR system as a teaching/learning tool in each of its health professions’ programs and established health informatics competencies within selected curricula. 

Implementation: Over the past decade, St. Scholastica’s faculty and CHI staff have been implementing an EHR system into health professions programs across the country. Faculty and staff have also been engaged in research focused on the use of EHR systems in rural healthcare facilities and identifying best practices. CHI staff has vast experience working with rural healthcare facilities on performance improvement and change management. 

Health information exchange. Faculty in the Department of Healthcare Informatics and Information Management (HIIM) have been engaged with the Community Health Information Collaborative (CHIC) in the planning efforts focused on the development of the northeastern Minnesota electronic health records exchange.

Personal health records (PHR). HIIM faculty have worked with several organizations in Minnesota to plan, evaluate, customize and implement PHR applications to support the unique health management needs of diverse populations.

Outreach. Nursing and HIIM faculty serve on the Boards of rural health care organizations, as well as serve on working groups associated with health IT and EHRs at the state and national levels, including: Certification Commission on Health Information Technology, Minnesota e-Health Initiative, Rural HIT Coalition, and Technology Informatics Guiding Educational Reform.