Spokane-based nonprofit Inland Northwest Health Services says it's pursuing a grant for about $15 million over a three-year period to help enhance collaboration among health-care providers through Northwest TeleHealth, its video-conferencing exchange network.

The grant, called a Beacon Community grant, would come through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, says Jac Davies, director of Northwest TeleHealth, who says she will submit a grant proposal later this month.

The project, if approved, would focus on coordinating a continuum of health care involving patients with adult-onset, or type 2, diabetes, a chronic condition that care providers can measure to determine the effects of changes in care coordination, Davies says.

The intent is to centralize and exchange health information between a number of health-care providers to coordinate care, Davis says. Participating providers would include hospitals, pharmacies, physicians, health departments, community health centers, laboratories, imaging centers, and other agencies and services here that have a role in the continuity of health care, she says.

Beacon Community grants will be awarded in March to 15 nonprofits nationally, each of which must be a leader in health information technology, Davies says. Grant recipients' performance will be measured against a like number of organizations that don't receive grants to help determine whether the grant funding results in improved care, she says.

Recipients are expected to demonstrate cost savings and health improvements through programs that will be financially sustainable by the end of the grant period, she says.