VENTURA, CA – Community Memorial Health System has rolled out a new electronic health record and practice management solution to its 70 physicians in preparation for the release of governement incentives for IT adoption.

The new stimulus funds – approximately $44,000 to $64,000 per physician – will become available through the Department of Health and Human Services to providers who can demonstrate the “meaningful use” of healthcare IT in 2011.

Officials of Community Memorial Health System said the implementation of the new EHR/PM solution was the first step in order to make affiliated practices eligible for the new incentives.

The EHR/PM solution, developed by Chicago-based IT provider Allscripts, is expected to enhance the quality of care, improve patient communications, and better manage the cost of care delivery, said Memorial Health officials.

Established in 2005 by the merger of the 240-bed Community Memorial Hospital and the 103-bed Ojai Valley Community Hospital, Community Memorial Health System is a not-for-profit organization that includes nine Centers for Family Health in communities across Ventura County in California.

Health System officials said the solutions are part of the Community Memorial’s connected healthcare strategy - to enable health information exchange and collaboration among all the members of a patient’s care team, inside and outside the health system.
 
“With Allscripts, the electronic health record has finally become so user friendly that it has tipped the scale from being a burden to becoming a benefit,” said Stanley Frochtzwajg, MD, chief medical officer of Community Memorial Health System. “National quality measures and the reimbursement tied to those measures are impacting physicians and hospitals alike.  The only real way to comply with those measures and compete successfully with other health systems is by collecting and collating that data with an EHR.”
 
Community Memorial Health System is planning to host the EHR/PM solution for 70 contracted physicians in its nine clinics as well as providing the solution to a pilot group of 12 community physicians. Following the pilot, officials said the health system will begin offering it to other affiliated physicians within the community.

Health System officials said contracted physicians are expecting to use the EHR/PM solution to access a “virtual patient record” that aggregates and harmonizes clinical information about a patient from all the information systems in use across the health system.

“The time table for the federal reimbursements begins very soon, and in order for us to safely meet that deadline we realized we must begin our implementation now,”  Frochtzwajg said.