Quality Partners of Rhode Island, whose focus is on healthcare quality improvement, has been selected to serve on the Health Information Technology Competency Taskforce, funded through the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.
The organization announced it had been selected to participate on the federal task force, which is charged with identifying the roles and competencies to become certified as a healthcare IT professional, a new designation in the field of healthcare information technology.
Brenda Jenkins, a senior program administrator at Quality Partners, is representing the organization on the task force. Jenkins was one of 12 subject matter experts participating in a kickoff panel discussion held in Chicago this month. The panel of national experts is made up of representatives from hospitals, academia and physician practice settings.
"There is an increased need for the healthcare workforce at the local level to not only embrace, but become proficient in harnessing technology to improve healthcare in our communities," said John Keimig, president and CEO of Quality Partners of Rhode Island. "But to bring that vision to life, universal standards have to be set at the national level. Having one of our experts selected to contribute to that process is validation that Quality Partners of Rhode Island is achieving our mission of leading healthcare quality improvement."
Increasing the use of healthcare information technology is being encouraged and supported on several fronts. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) includes language that strongly encourages hospitals and physician practices to adopt electronic health records. Last June, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced $83.9 million in grants to help networks of health centers adopt EHRs and other healthcare IT systems.
Also, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of February 2009 provides for the establishment of Regional Extension Centers (RECs) to help primary care providers select, implement and use an EHR to improve the quality and value of healthcare by satisfying the meaningful use criteria set forth by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Quality Partners of Rhode Island was recently named a vendor in the Rhode Island REC.
Earlier this year, the ONC awarded $84 million in funding for the Health IT Workforce Development Program, which aims to rapidly expand the availability of skilled health IT professionals. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. Department of Education, and independent studies indicate a shortage of as many as 50,000 qualified health IT workers over the next five years. Of that, a grant program has been established that seeks to create or expand intensive, degree and non-degree health IT education and training programs at community colleges and technical institutes.
