Health care executive relishes the ‘opportunity to make a difference’
The HIE in Healthie Nevada stands for health information exchange, which helps health care providers coordinate patient care by connecting them with each other and sharing medical records in a secure, accurate manner.
Michael Gagnon, executive director of Healthie Nevada, talked to us about the satisfaction he receives from working in the nonprofit sector and how much money it would take to develop a fully integrated, statewide network of health information.
Do you have any recent news or updates about yourself, your work or your organization that you’d like to share?
Since I started as executive director last August, our organization has made some major strides. We have improved our finances, begun formal marketing, rebranded, added new technology, established staff training, were accredited by the Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC) and certified by the state of Nevada. We also obtained $1.2 million in state and federal Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Michael Gagnon, executive director, Healthie Nevada
(HITECH) funding to connect underserved health care organizations and several state organizations.
Who are your community partners?
In a health information exchange, you need to partner with as many provider, payer and patient organizations as possible. You also want to partner with provider associations and vendors who provide specific services. Our close alignment with Healthinsight, the Medicare quality improvement organization for Nevada, is one key to our success. Healthie Nevada contracts with Healthinsight to provide the management contract and staffing for the HIE. This give us numerous advantages in staffing and back office functions like payroll and benefits that other HIES normally do not have.
When did you know this is the field you wanted to get into?
Early in my career, I worked for a defense company with some very good engineers. After working for 10 years in defense, I had an opportunity to work for the Mayo Clinic. When I first got into health care, it seemed so far behind in its use of technology. But then I started to view this as an opportunity to make a difference. Ever since that point, I knew this was the field I wanted to be in.
“The value of the network is highest when you have many contributors.”
How does working for a nonprofit organization differ from a for-profit firm?
First, the culture of a not-for-profit is different. Our primary goal is not to make money but to have a community mission we are trying to accomplish. Second is how we are funded. We depend on grants, donations and the fees we charge to our clients. For many not-for-profits, they mostly need operating funds and have relatively small needs for capital funds. But since we are building a health network, we have significant need for capital funds. This is our biggest challenge. The value of the network is highest when you have many contributors.
Do you foresee any proposed legislation in the 2019 state session that will affect
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