05-17-2011
Implementing an EHR and achieving meaningful use is a whole lot easier with a helping hand
The April 26, 2011 Physicians Practice online newsletter featured an article about how Regional Extension Centers are assisting small practices across the country to implement and "meaningfully use" electronic health records.
The article recounts how Peggy Smith, an office manager at a Harlan, Ky.-based practice, and her husband, Carl Smith, a pediatrician, had long since gotten used to using the EHR their practice had in place since 2003. Then, in 2010, CMS shook everything up, launching the now-quite-familiar program that calls on practices to use their EHR system in a "meaningful" way.
Enter the state of Kentucky's Regional Extension Center (REC), which dispatched an in-house expert to assist the Smiths so quickly that by press time they were counting the days till they received a substantial Medicaid incentive check.