The Alliance is a group of community health centers working together "to share resources and integrate services to more efficiently and effectively deliver accessible, quality health care to the communities we serve."

The founding members of the Alliance are Erie Family Health Center, Heartland Health Outreach, Howard Brown Health Center, and Near North Health Service Corporation, all headquartered on Chicago's north side. Additional members are listed within the EHRS User Community section.The Alliance continues to attract new members as it progresses with its projects.

Alliance members are health centers – often Safety Net organizations - serving primarily low-income and uninsured patients with multiple, complex needs.

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) defines the safety net as "Those providers that organize and deliver a significant level of health care and other health-related services to uninsured, Medicaid, and other vulnerable patients" (Institute of Medicine, 2000). The IOM also recognized the concept of "core safety net providers…These providers have two distinguishing characteristics: (1) by legal mandate or explicitly adopted mission they maintain an "open door," offering access to services to patients regardless of their ability to pay; and (2) a substantial share of their patient mix is uninsured, Medicaid, and other vulnerable patients" (Institute of Medicine, 2000).

More than 250,000 clients with well over one million encounters annually.

More than 25 sites and continually growing (including primary care related, mental health, substance abuse and dental facilities; women, infant and children offices; school-based clinics; soup kitchens; and homeless shelters).

Since 1997, when it received funding from the federal Bureau of Primary Health Care under the Integrated Services Development Initiative.

No, the Alliance is a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) and is entirely owned by four 501c3 not-for-profit organizations.

The Alliance is a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) governed by a Board of Managers that includes the Executive Director of each of the four member Centers, plus a Chief Executive Officer, Chief Medical Officer, and Chief Financial Officer.

Each of the member Centers is governed by a Board of Directors, comprised at least 51% by service users.

Network-level staff include the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Medical Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Information Officer, Director of Clinical Quality Improvement, and Director of Training and Education.

The Alliance represents a joint investment by the participating Health Centers. It is supported through Health Center contributions; the Centers then have access to Alliance services at higher quality and lower cost than if they procured individually. The Alliance is also supported through grant funds and other initiatives.

Diabetes, depression, HIV, and smoking cessation. We expect to expand our scope as projects progress.

Clinical quality improvement, electronic health record system implementation, immunization registry creation, training and education, and development lab testing.

FQHCs are nonprofit community health centers that meet various standards and receive federal funding to serve the rising numbers of uninsured people nationwide. Three of the Alliance members are FQHCs and one is a "look-alike" (a separate but similar designation).

The EHRS is a computerized version of the traditional, paper-based medical record. The EHRS fosters efficiency and enhances clinical quality improvement, thus enabling the Alliance and other community health centers to better serve their at-risk patients.

The Alliance, along with Northwestern University, is a founding partner of CHITREC. CHITREC is a public-private partnership that brings together leading healthcare and information technology experts from health care organizations, academia, industry, and government and is focused on providing resources to promote Meaningful Use of Health Information Technology. CHITREC is funded through the Health Information Technology Extension (HITECH) Program of the HITECH Act.