HOUSTON – The Gulf Coast Regional Extension Center (GCREC) at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) opened its enrollment period for eligible practitioners last month. The goal is to get 2,855 eligible primary healthcare providers in the south region of Texas on board with an EHR in the first year and to ensure they are using those systems meaningfully by 2012.


The GCREC – one of 60 across the country – is designed to help eligible primary care physicians (pediatricians, internists, family practitioners and obstetricians-gynecologists), nurse practitioners and physician assistants make the most of an existing e-health record system or select and transition their practice to electronic records.


Kim Dunn, MD, executive director of the GCREC and assistant professor at the UTHealth School of Biomedical Informatics, said the GCREC is focusing on primary care practitioners because in many instances they are the patient's first contact with the healthcare system.


"One of the most important benefits is that the RECs will help restore integrity to the doctor-patient relationship by giving practitioners and patients access to the right data at the right time," Dunn said. "RECs will help practitioners take patient data and translate that into information that's actionable. Having the resources to provide patients with the best possible care will foster trust in the healthcare delivery system."


The GCREC is one of four RECs in the state of Texas. It serves primary care practitioners in Beaumont, Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Houston, San Antonio, Victoria and other cities in the southern region of Texas. In addition to its primary office in Houston, the GCREC has a regional office in Brownsville managed by Joseph McCormick, MD, James H. Steele professor and regional dean of the UTHealth School of Public Health Brownsville Regional Campus.


The other Texas centers are at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Texas A&M University and the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council Education and Research Foundation. Collectively, the state RECs received $35.7 million, and there is a collaborative working group to coordinate their efforts. 
The GCREC will provide primary care practitioners with on-site technical assistance, as well as help with vendor selection, project management and workforce development. Participating practitioners will receive 20 hours of continuing education. There is an annual enrollment fee of $300 for the GCREC services.


"This is a great opportunity to help primary care clinicians adopt electronic medical record systems,” said Lewis E. Foxhall, MD, a member of the GCREC Medical Advisory Board, vice president of health policy at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and a trustee of the Texas Medical Association (TMA). To take advantage of funding assistance from the federal government, clinics must install these systems and use them in a number of ways to facilitate care delivery,"

"TMA will provide support to the RECs and the physician board members will give input and guidance to work toward implementation strategies that make sense for our patients and the clinicians who serve them."

Vaunette Fay, a member of the GCREC Medical Advisory Board and professor at the UTHealth School of Nursing, said nurse practitioners would also play a major part in providing primary care as the country moves into healthcare reform. 
"We will be very involved in the incorporation of these electronic health record systems into practices," said Fay, who is a family practice nurse practitioner. "It is a big investment of time and finances for small practices to convert to an electronic health record system. It can slow you down during the implementation process. But in the long run, it will help in the management of the practice."


The GCREC was designed to help people like Amanda Ritzen who manages information technology for a physician group in Weimar, a town of about 2,000 between Houston and San Antonio. "The practice has had electronic records since 2002,” said Ritzen. “I think the REC can help us be more efficient.”