The Health Resources and Services Administration will deliver $31.4 million in grants to support health information technology in clinics that serve low-income and underserved communities, the agency announced today.

Forty-six organizations, most of them community health centers, will get the grants, which range from $77,100 to $1.4 million.

Twenty-five of the grants and the largest sums, totaling more than $27 million, will pay for e-health records systems and networks that will connect two or more of the centers receiving grants.

Another eight grants, none larger than $125,000, will help health clinics plan for electronic health records or other forms of health IT.

The remaining 13 grants are for health IT other than EHRs. The agency's announcement said those projects may include e-prescribing, physician entry of orders such as lab tests or radiology, personal health records, community health records, health information exchanges, smart cards and establishing interoperability with other organizations.

The grantees are from across the nation and from rural areas, such as Saltville, Va., where Southwest Virginia Community Health Systems Inc. will get $1.4 million. Funding also went to major cities, such as Chicago, where two organizations – Access Community Health Network and the Near North Health Service Corp. – will each get that amount.