Establishing 60 health Regional Extension Centers across the country to help solo and small physician practices get on board with electronic health records is the right prescription for a system that remains mired in paper. A recent report from eHealth Initiative shows that the centers – called RECs – are off to a slow start.
Many are still in the planning stages, according to the survey to which 46 of the 60 organizations responded. The eHI report noted that progress had been slow in transitioning pre-award letters of commitment by providers to signed contracts with a Regional Extension Center.
Slow is a subjective term. We think this model will work.
There are goals in place – to give help to 100,000 primary care providers across the country. Each REC will serve at least 1,000 physicians over the first two years.
The RECs are front-loaded with funding in the first two years of a four-year program, when the money is most needed for purchase and implementation.
Having at-elbow help, which most of the RECs plan to provide will help providers convert from paper to digital much more smoothly than if they had to do it alone.
Some of the RECs we know seem to have gotten off to a running start.
Take New York State’s two RECs – the New York eHealth Collaborative and New York City Regional Electronic Adoption Center for Health (NYC REACH). Together they are targeting 10,000 primary care providers in the state. They started out with a road trip across the state inviting doctors to sessions where they could learn more about the process.
"Our team of experts can provide valuable hands-on assistance to providers every step of the way, from evaluating and selecting an electronic health record system to implementing it most effectively to improve patient care and qualify for federal funds." says Amanda Parsons, MD, assistant commissioner of the Primary Care Information Project at the New York City Health Department. Parsons oversees NYC REACH.
Healthcare IT News Associate Editor Molly Merrill visited the offices of Maine’s Regional Extension Center (MEREC) last month. Like other extension centers across the country, MEREC is under the umbrella of the state’s health information exchange, HealthInfoNet. MEREC was in the process of selecting preferred vendors for the physicians last month and expected it would be about a month before the bids came in.
As Shaun Alfreds, COO of HealthInfoNet, sees it, working with a REC to deploy an electronic health record has at least a couple of advantages – technical support and likely the best price.
“We are trying to get the lowest cost out to providers for EMRs,” Alfreds said. “The vendor has to demonstrate that they are the lowest price in the market and if they go lower with some other organization or REC, that we will get that price,”
Is that slow? It depends what you mean by slow. Now that the RECs have been launched, we are eager for results, and we expect the results will not disappoint. How far the small physician practices come in a year or two may surprise everyone. It’s critical to stay focused on the goal. The number of physicians who adopt is one goal.
The ultimate goal is better patient care.
“It’s all about moving to a more patient-centered care model,” says Lisa M. Letourneau MD, executive director, Quality Counts in Maine, and “EHRs are one of the tools we can use to get us there.”
"One of the most important benefits of the RECs as Kim Dunn, MD, executive director of the of the Gulf Coast REC (GREC), sees it, is that they will help “restore integrity to the doctor-patient relationship by giving practitioners and patients access to the right data at the right time.”
That’s the goal. We’re confident it’s achievable and the RECs will help achieve it.
