HOUSTON – Among the first healthcare providers to have money in the bank -- thanks to the federal government's electronic health record (EHR) incentive program -- are two Texas hospitals, Stamford (Texas) Memorial Hospital and Hemphill County Hospital, Canadian, Texas.

Both Stamford and Hemphill quickly moved from paper environments to electronic records to achieving meaningful use to be among the initial 37 hospitals nationwide, including 13 hospitals in Texas, that received their incentive checks in late May.  This is significant since hospitals that had implemented EHRs well in advance of the government's unveiling of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) in 2009 were expected to be the early recipients of the funds.

To become part of this elite group, both hospitals relied on ChartAccess Comprehensive EHR from Prognosis Health Information Systems, to overcome the cost, speed of implementation, and usability obstacles commonly cited as impediments to electronic records success. A shared web-native EHR system delivered via a "cloud computing" model, ChartAccess software applications are made available as a service over an encrypted health information network.

Both hospitals went from system selection to utilization quickly. Clinicians at each hospital then leveraged the EHR to meet meaningful use requirements between January and March – and participated in the attestation in mid-April before receiving checks from the federal government.  

"We were able to fast track our EHR efforts by choosing a powerful EHR system that was engineered for speed and by pulling together a leadership team that could teach all of our clinicians and staff members how to leverage the system to meet meaningful use criteria," says Rick DeFoore, CEO at Stamford.

"Our users began using the system immediately because it fits right into their workflow.  The Prognosis EHR includes a 'meaningful use' dashboard that made it possible for us to continually monitor where we stood with respect to meeting the government's requirements.  So, we were able to quickly leverage the technology to hit the meaningful use milestones," says Patrick Murfee, director of information systems at Hemphill.

Most hospitals are currently focused on meeting meaningful use requirements in order to receive incentive funds from the government, but the substantial clinical, operational and financial benefits of the Prognosis EHR will continue for years to come, according to Ramsey Evans, CEO of Prognosis.

"We are proving that our approach and technology can take providers from zero to implementation to meaningful use in record time. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. By working with our technology and our team, healthcare providers can expect to continually improve care, making it possible to provide outstanding patient care today and well into the future," Evans says.

About Prognosis Health Information Systems

Prognosis Health Information Systems, Inc. (PHIS), Houston, aims to improve the quality and safety of patient care through ChartAccess, a certified Comprehensive EHR. Designed to be fully operational in less than six months at a predictable, affordable cost, the solution enables hospitals to meet meaningful use and improve patient outcomes by leveraging built-in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) milestone and quality measure tracking functionality. PHIS uses 21st-Century technologies to offer small community hospitals a pure browser-based system that can run on-premise or in the cloud. For more information, go to www.prognosishis.com.