Regional Extension Centers to Support Critical Access Hospitals

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has announced that funding will be available to HIT Regional Extension Centers (REC) to provide Critical Access Hospitals with technical assistance to adopt and achieve meaningful use of electronic health records. This is exciting news given that originally only outpatient clinics were supported through REC funding. In Colorado, CRHC is one of the REC partners that will be providing HIT support to hospitals and clinics through THE Consortium. We will keep you informed as we learn more about the details of the REC services that will be available to your facility.

For more information on the RECs, click here.

Whitepaper on Consumer Consent Options for Electronic Health Information Exchange

This whitepaper is the first in a series of privacy and security reports developed by George Washington University under contract with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. The paper examines issues regarding whether, to what extent, and how individuals should have the ability to exercise control over their health information in an electronic health information exchange environment, and looks at existing approaches and details policy options, considerations, and analysis. The whitepaper will serve as input to and will be reviewed by the HIT Policy Committee's Privacy and Security Workgroup as it prepares to make recommendations related to consumer consent in an electronic health information exchange environment.

Leveraging HIT for Patient Empowerment - FREE National Webinar

This free 90-minute teleconference will explore the latest research on how patients can utilize health IT to increase participation in their healthcare.
Date: April 8, 2010, 1:00 – 2:30 p.m., MT
Sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ) National Resource Center for Health IT
To register for the teleconference, please click here to register.

Presenters:
• Alexander Krist, M.D., M.P.H., serves as an Assistant Professor in the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) School of Medicine's Department of Family Medicine. The majority of his research is conducted through the VCU Department of Family Medicine’s multidisciplinary research team and its practice-based research network (the Virginia Ambulatory Care outcomes Research Network) of more than sixty primary care practices, spanning six health systems assembled to coordinate on research projects. In 2004 he helped direct his practice to implement a paperless electronic health record including e-prescribing, laboratory and radiology interfaces, electronic billing, performance monitoring, and a registry for population management.
• Christine Ritchie, M.D., M.S.P.H., is an Associate Professor at the University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB) School of Medicine’s Center for Palliative Care. She holds the title of Director of the UAB Center for Palliative Care and Director of the Palliative Care Section within the Division of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine. She served as the VA Network 9 Palliative Care Consult Team mentor, a member of the VA Network 9 Health Systems Council, and co-chair of the Network 9 Geriatrics and Extended Care Committee.
• Christine Sinsky, M.D., B.S., is a General Internist at Medical Associates Clinic and Health Plans, in Dubuque, Iowa. She is a frequently invited lecturer on practice innovation, redesign, and the patient centered medical home (PCMH) and has been a presenter at the Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative Stakeholder meeting. She serves on the physician advisory panel for the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) physician recognition programs and is a Director on the American Board of Internal Medicine.

Dr. Sinsky will introduce the topic by providing an overview of challenges and innovations facing patient empowerment and health IT systems. Building on this foundation, Dr. Krist will discuss findings from a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the impact of a personal health record (PHR). In his presentation he will explain how this PHR links patients to their health information in their physician’s electronic medical record (EMR) and provides personally tailored prevention recommendations to patients. Dr. Ritchie will discuss ongoing research in developing evidence-based tools to support patient-centered care. She will explain the findings from a randomized controlled trial investigating how to utilize IT systems to support patients with complex medical conditions as they transition from hospital to home-based care. To conclude our presentation, Dr. Sinsky will discuss her on-the-ground experience with empowering patients via IT systems in clinical settings and the key barriers and enablers to success.

Sign up today! Breach Notification & EMR Selection Webinar - April 15, 12-1:15pm

Please join us for our next Consortium Webinar on April 15th from 12-1:15 pm MST where we will discuss the latest HIPAA regulations on Breach Notification, and the Electronic Health Record (EHR) Selection Process.

You will learn what policies and procedures you need to have in place in case of a breach of confidential information, and we will walk you through the preparedness and readiness assessment steps necessary in EHR meaningful use adoption. Click Here to register.

Can Critical Access Hospitals Close the Meaningful Use Gap?

The Flex Monitoring Team recently released a report comparing Critical Access Hospitals to other U.S. Hospitals regarding their level of meaningful use adoption of health information technology. The results, based on adoption levels in 2008, indicate that CAHs "are significantly less likely than other hospitals to have adopted several key applications that are preconditions for meaningful use", and that the ARRA incentive funding will likely be insufficient given the financial situation facing most CAHs.

Other Key Findings
• Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs)are significantly less likely than other US hospitals to have adopted several key applications that are preconditions for “meaningful use” of health information technology.
• The most frequently adopted technology applications in CAHs are order communication
systems, which have been adopted by almost two-thirds of CAHs, and radiology picture archiving communication systems (PACS), which have been adopted by over half of CAHs.
• Fewer than 14% of CAHs have an electronic medical record (EMR) with a clinical data repository and some clinical decision support capability.
• Fewer than three percent of CAHs have an EMR with Computerized Prescriber Order Entry (CPOE) and an electronic medication administration record(eMAR).

Final Meaningful Use Comments Submitted to CMS 3.15.10

THE Consortium submitted comments to CMS Monday on the proposed meaningful use and incentive funding rules. Comments were based on input from Consortium members including Critical Access Hospitals, Rural Health Clinics, and other safety net clinics, and focused primarily on the gaps in eligibility for provider-based clinics, lack of funding for essential costs for CAH EHR systems, and gaps in provider eligibility for APNs and PAs. Click here to download the final comments.

Webinar available on Colorado Health Information Exchange

The Colorado Health Foundation is hosting a webinar on March 31, 2010 on The Role of the Safety Net in Building Colorado’s Health Information Exchange, Part II. This webinar is the second in a two part series featuring Phyllis Albritton, Executive Director of the Colorado Regional Health Information Organization (CORHIO). The upcoming webinar will focus on planning for regional HIE, and will feature two examples of partnerships the Foundation funded to plan for the local exchange of data. We will include time for questions and answers. For more information and to register for this free webinar, click here.

Detailed Consortium Member Benefits Now Available

As a valued Consortium Member, your hospital or clinic can benefit from high value services such as IT group purchasing, EHR Assessment/Roadmapping, HIPAA Policies & Procedures & Risk Analysis, Incentive Funding Calculation assistance, IT Security Framework Certification and MUCH MORE! Detailed descriptions of each service and costs are now available on our Consortium website.

EHR as a Physician Recruitment Tool?

Rural hospitals and clinics are no strangers to the challenges of recruiting and retaining high quality clinical staff. A recent Health IT Pulse article argues that in spite of the cultural barriers, costs and resources involved in adopting technology, the benefits obtained in being able to recruit staff who now require facilities to be using HIT systems is invaluable. Read more…

Register Now: The Forum 2010

The Forum is a two-day conference that will bring together participants from all over Colorado and the surrounding states for an essential educational, training, and networking event for all safety net clinics, members of the clinic team, and other interested parties. This year, the event has expanded its reach to include other states and clinic types in order to address the central issues facing us all. The CRHC and ClinicNET have partnered this year to present this event. The Forum offers a comprehensive agenda and has a special focus for 2010 on HIT. For more information and to register, click here.

Consortium Draft CMS Proposed Rule Comments Now Available

THE Consortium has released draft comments on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Electronic Health Records Incentive Programs Proposed Rule, and welcomes feedback from our constituents. The comments were formulated based on our extensive study of the rule, and feedback from our stakeholders and national partners who represent a diverse community of providers including Critical Access Hospitals (CAH) and their provider-based Rural Health Clinics (RHC), Independent Free-standing RHCs, and Community-Funded Safety Net Clinics (CSNCs) in rural and urban areas. Please contact Cari Fouts, cf@coruralhealth.org with additional comments by March 14, 2010.

Next Webinar: Key HIPAA Issues and Current Analysis of Meaningful Use/Incentive Funding

March 17, 12:00pm-1:15pm
Please join the Technology for Healthcare Excellence (THE) Consortium’s next educational Webinar on March 17th from 12-1:15 pm MT. The informative agenda will include:

• Key HIPAA Regulations - “Staying Compliant with Business Associates”
• New clarification on incentive funding and how it will affect you
• Review of the comments on Meaningful Use that have been submitted by THE Consortium and various organizationsA discussion on what is expected to remain in the final rule

Price:

• Consortium members and CCGC affiliates: Free (Please limit registration to one line per Consortium facility)
• Non-Members: $99 per line (Non-members will be invoiced after the Webinar)

To join THE Consortium, please click here for more information, or contact Cari Fouts at cf@coruralhealth.org. Click here to register.