ONC: 65% Toward REC Provider Goal
Amanda Parsons, M.D.Challenges around AdoptionParsons admitted that providers rather than having challenges around clinical decision support or computerized physician order entry (CPOE) are having problems surrounding workflows that involve the patient “because historically they haven’t turned on the patient portal or they haven’t gotten to the place where they’re printing the summary of the visits.” What is part of her job at NYC REACH is to dispel common myths circulating in provider communities that say patients don’t have access to the Internet or don’t want visit summaries.Parsons also noted another challenge that providers faced was collecting race and ethnicity on every patient. “It’s not an easy conversation for your front desk person to have,” she said. “When you ask about race and ethnicity it can become uncomfortable, so there have to be good workflows in place to do that.”Kendall noted that on a federal level, rural healthcare, especially linking primary care physicians and specialty care, is difficult to address. This is why his office is creating a supplemental program to address critical access hospitals because the ONC recognizes them as a priority. Other challenges his office is facing are systems hurdles like sharing data from laboratories, which the ONC seeks to remedy by publicizing tools like its DIRECT Project that allows providers to make point-to-point connections to share data for patient care.“You need to really leverage economies of scale to help the provider,” said Kendall. “You need to drive toward quality. Having [local projects are] an amazingly powerful tools for us, the same way having meaningful use for us will be powerful for the extension centers. It helps add focus. Healthcare is so complicated, and if you don’t have goals, and standardize things, it’s a lot more challenging.”
