About
American medicine is changing. Ten years from now, doctors will enter nearly every patient encounter into some kind of digital system, and they will be expected to use data to improve their treatment.
The latest data shows that more and more providers are adopting an electronic health record (EHR). The percentage of providers who have adopted an EHR in their practice has doubled from 17% to 34% between 2008 and 2011 (National Center for Health Statistics, National Ambulatory Medicare Survey, 11/30/11).
In fact, over 135,000 providers have adopted an EHR and have registered for a Medicare or Medicaid EHR Incentive Payment as of October 31, 2011. Many of these providers have fulfilled the federal requirements for EHR meaningful use. As a result, over $1.2 billion in EHR incentive payments have been made through the end of October (ONC Encourage Health IT Fact Sheet).
The question is - will this transformation actually improve health?
The NYC Regional Electronic Adoption Center for Health (NYC REACH) is a collaboration between the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Fund for Public Health in New York to help make sure doctors in New York City don't get left behind. Our mission is to assist them in adopting technology and methods that measurably improve the health of New Yorkers. Some providers may also be eligible for incentives for EHR use from federal, state, or private programs. Our job is to help offset the transition cost and burden as much as possible through training, education, and links to funding sources.
Drawing on the experience of the Primary Care Information Project (PCIP), which oversees this organization, NYC REACH has a team of experts for all stages of EHR adoption, implementation and use. A New York City mayoral initiative founded in 2005, PCIP succeeded in bringing over 1,800 providers live on EHRs and is now the largest community-based EHR program in the country. PCIP worked closely with the Fund for Public Health in New York to develop a program that educates and assists providers through the entire process of implementing an EHR, from preparing the office to effective use that leads to health quality improvement.
REACH Services: How to Get to Meaningful Use
EHR Education: Educates providers in private practices, community health centers and hospital ambulatory facilities on the importance of EHR adoption and Meaningful Use.
Vendor Selection Support: Assists providers in organizing their EHR vendor search and to provide a framework on how to select the most appropriate EHR for your practice. We can help providers narrow down over 1,000 product certified EHRs to the one that fits your practice's needs. We provide product overviews, vendor contacts, and implementation and Meaningful Use classes.
Implementation Support: Assists health care facilities to successfully implement EHRs by sharing best practices in IT infrastructure assessment, project management, workflow analysis, and vendor relations. We can assist in coordinating and managing third-party interfaces and services, including laboratories, e-prescribing and immunization registries to ensure these services are installed and ready for use.
Clinical Quality Consulting: Provides on-site coaching sessions on EHR-enabled workflow redesign for key disease areas (cardiovascular chronic diseases, smoking, obesity, vaccinations and cancer screenings) based on the Medical Home and Chronic Care Model. We assist providers on clinical and administrative workflow redesign and optimization and setting up templates to fit your practice.
Billing Support: Provides on-site trainings on the EHR, including billing workflow redesign and focused teachings on how to correctly document and bill for preventive services and counseling.
Privacy and Security: Trains and educates providers on privacy and security issues related to staffing, hardware, network infrastructure, policies and procedures and data integrity.
EHR and Meaningful Use Training: Educates providers on the requirements for Meaningful Use, billing best practices, front office basics, clinical essentials, and how-to use specific functions in your EHR. Classes are both in-person and online. We also have an online resource library with self-help tools for providers as complementary and supplementary resources.
Quality Reporting and Measurement: Manages a quality reporting database that receives quality measures from participating practices, conducts quality assurance on that data, gives providers quality report cards, and works with payors to develop robust Pay-for-Performance programs based on EHR-derived quality measures.
Health Information Exchange: Supports secure standardized electronic data exchange between EHR-enabled primary care providers and laboratories, hospitals, insurers, and public health (immunization registry, school health, disease reporting).