A survey conducted by eHealth Initiative and MedPlus suggests healthcare providers have been slow to sign contracts with health IT regional extension centers, according to the survey.
For the survey, eHealth Initiative collected information on 46 of the 60 RECs, which were created to provide assistance to healthcare providers working toward adopting meaningful use of electronic health records. With funding from the Office of the National Coordinator, the goal of the RECs is to provide technical support and education to at least 1,000 physicians in the first two years. Only 14 out of the 46 surveyed RECs reported that they had signed contracts with community healthcare providers for their technical support and services, although many more physicians had expressed interest.
Other key findings from the survey include:
Read eHealth Initiative release about the regional extension centers survey.
Read other coverage about regional extension centers:
- Office of National Coordinator Setting Measures for New Beacon Communities
- Blumenthal: Federal Health IT Funding to Create 50,000 Jobs in Next 5 Years
For the survey, eHealth Initiative collected information on 46 of the 60 RECs, which were created to provide assistance to healthcare providers working toward adopting meaningful use of electronic health records. With funding from the Office of the National Coordinator, the goal of the RECs is to provide technical support and education to at least 1,000 physicians in the first two years. Only 14 out of the 46 surveyed RECs reported that they had signed contracts with community healthcare providers for their technical support and services, although many more physicians had expressed interest.
Other key findings from the survey include:
- Many RECs remain in the planning stages.
- Opinion is evenly divided on progress toward REC objectives being reliant upon assistance from the Health Information Technology Research Center.
- Among RECs planning to offer a preferred EHR vendor list to PCPs, the most important criteria for selecting a preferred EHR vendor are:
- Price/total cost of ownership over three years
- Guarantee of meaningful use functionality
- The number of installations locally
- Use of an ASP hosted model
- After stimulus funds are removed, a majority of RECs will change their fees as a means to sustainability.
Read eHealth Initiative release about the regional extension centers survey.
Read other coverage about regional extension centers:
- Office of National Coordinator Setting Measures for New Beacon Communities
- Blumenthal: Federal Health IT Funding to Create 50,000 Jobs in Next 5 Years