National Health IT Week is September 15-19, 2014. Initially designed to raise national awareness of health information technology, National Health IT week offers the opportunity for some celebration in its ninth year. The Pennsylvania Regional Extension and Assistance Center for Health Information Technology (PA REACH), the federally designated Regional Extension Center for Pennsylvania, serves over 6,350 health care providers including primary care physicians, specialists, hospitals and critical access hospitals. Over the past four years, PA REACH has helped 4,410 providers reach Meaningful Use of electronic health record (EHR) technology and continues to offer this assistance to providers across the state.
Thanks to the work done by Regional Extension Centers (RECs) nationwide, today more than 91 percent of REC-enrolled physicians have adopted a basic EHR and over 152,000 providers are moving through the stages of meaningful use – a set of standards that governs the use of EHRs.
More progress must be made, but it is increasingly accepted that comprehensive health care reform is not possible without system-wide adoption of health information technology. Many providers have actively embraced it and are seeing improved quality of health care delivery, increased patient safety, and have strengthened the interaction between patients and health care providers.
PA REACH is now also offering additional resources that build off of the meaningful use of EHRs and enhance patient engagement, including Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) assistance. Currently, PA REACH is providing PCMH support services to 124 practice sites, with 54 sites achieving NCQA recognition. A PCMH model provides primary health care that is relationship-based with an orientation toward the whole person. PCMH relies on provider to provider communication and health information exchange to assure that patients get the quality care when and where they need it.
PCMH is a transformation initiative that is a natural next step for those practices that are meaningfully using electronic health records. Having the local, onsite, experienced health IT team like PA REACH at their disposal, Pennsylvania health care providers are making great strides toward using health IT to advance their PCMH efforts, and most importantly, enhancing the patient experience and outcomes.
"PA REACH has been a great benefit to me as I worked toward Meaningful Use. With massive amounts of information available on the Internet, PA REACH steered me through the confusing areas. My PA REACH Coordinator was able to point me in the right direction when I hit a fork in the road and provided me with the resources I needed, giving me the right information at the right time. I can’t thank them enough,” reports Donna Sledziewski, Director of Information Systems at Maternal and Family Health Services in Wilkes-Barre, PA.
“PA REACH helps providers identify which programs may be right for their practice based off of their current resources and strengths,” said PA REACH Executive Director Anita Somplasky. “We know these transitions can be difficult and we’re dedicated to helping these providers through the entire process both now and in the future.”
The integration of health IT into medical practices will continue to improve care coordination and communication for patients everywhere. As Health IT continues to play an important role in changing health care the RECs are prepared to deliver ongoing support to a wide variety of providers.