PLANO, TX – Perot Systems has joined forces with two medical associations to help push electronic health records at more than 70 planned Health Information Technology Regional Extension Centers around the country.
The American Medical Group Association and the Medical Group Management Association will help the Plano, Texas-based healthcare IT vendor develop EHR-related training and implementation services for the centers, which were created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009.
The government has allocated $70 million to start 70 regional centers, patterned after the cooperative extension centers developed to provide farmers with agricultural research and advice. Once established, the centers will provide technical assistance and disseminate best practices for healthcare providers struggling with implementation and adoption, including public and critical-access hospitals, federally qualified healthcare centers, rural providers and primary care physician practices.
“The services the alliance can provide are geared toward educating physician practices, hospitals and other qualifying healthcare organizations about EHR and HIE technology,” said Chuck Lyles, president of Perot Systems healthcare group. “This will allow these groups to make the most informed decision about the appropriate EHR for their organization and how they can successfully manage the implementation and integration into their current workflows.”
“The HIT Regional Extension Centers are going to play a critical role in helping targeted physicians, hospitals and other healthcare providers recognize the benefits of health information technology and how it will improve patient care and healthcare economics,” added Donald Fisher, president and CEO of the AMGA. “Through the alliance, we are prepared to help these newly established extension centers have an immediate impact in their designated regions by providing a number of key services and competitive solutions.”
According to Harry Greenspun, executive vice president and chief medical officer of Perot’s healthcare group, the company helped develop a guideline for operating the extension centers, with the goal of helping smaller practices find the resources to adopt EHR technology.
“Traditionally, smaller practices have been pretty poorly served by the industry,” he said. “The market leaders are geared towards larger practices, and every year there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of new applications and vendors out there that I have never heard of. How do you plant, seed and cultivate technology in that setting?”
Also throwing its support behind the centers is the American Health Information Management Association. At AHIMA’s convention last week in Grapevine, Texas, Donald Mon, the group’s vice president of practice leadership, said the centers would help create at least 50,000 new health information management jobs as the nation moves from a paper-based healthcare system to a digital one. And AHIMA CEO Linda Kloss said the group would be “very active” in making sure the centers hire HIM professionals.
The AMGA, based in Alexandria, Va., boasts roughly 95,000 physicians practicing in its member organizations, providing healthcare for 96 million patients. The MGMA, headquartered in Englewood, Colo., serves 22,500 members who manage more than 13,700 organizations and 275,000 physicians.
“MGMA is committed to helping medical group practices make the right decisions when it comes to implementing EHRs and making other critical technology decisions,” said William Jessee, MD, president and CEO of the MGMA. “We believe this alliance represents a natural extension of our mission, and we are pleased to be a part of the team helping the extension centers achieve this critical mission.”
