Colorado's Health Technology REC Program Reaches EHR Goals
The Colorado Regional Health Information Organization (CORHIO) has announced today that the Colorado Regional Extension Center program completed its goal of helping 2,295 primary care providers and 33 rural and critical access hospitals adopt and meaningfully use electronic health record (EHR) technology.
Of the 2,295 primary care providers that the Colorado Regional Extension Center program assisted, 1,236 are family practice or general medicine practitioners, 465 are internal medicine or geriatrics providers, 385 are pediatricians and 209 are OB-GYNs.
The Colorado Regional Extension Center program was funded through a federal ARRA HITECH grant, awarded to CORHIO in 2010 by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) and The Office of the National Coordinator of Health IT. CORHIO administered the program and partnered with seven local health care organizations to deliver services to providers. The partners included: ClinicNET, Colorado Community Managed Care Network, Colorado Rural Health Center (CRHC), HealthTeamWorks, Physician Health Partners, Telligen (formerly Colorado Foundation for Medical Care) and Quality Health Network. The grant allowed the Colorado REC was able to offer participating providers free assistance with EHR adoption and with the meaningful use objectives.
According to national statistics, 84 percent of Colorado's physicians are using EHRs, exceeding the national average of 78 percent. Additionally, 76 percent of Colorado hospitals have adopted EHRs, exceeding the national average of 59 percent. The most current statistics are from 2013.
CORHIO will continue to offer health care providers assistance with health information technology. The program is converting into a new services division within CORHIO called Transformation Support Services, which will offer administrative and consultative assistance to office-based providers both directly and through its partner network. The assistance will include help with adopting EHRs, meaningful use objectives and reporting, migrating EHR platforms, quality reporting and Medical Home recognition.
