New York City hits HIT milestone
New York City officials said a two-year-old project to deliver electronic health records (EHRs) now has 200,000 participating patients and aims to reach more than 1 million people this year.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced at a press conference that the city’s Primary Care Information Project (PCIP) is now up and running. He said 200 providers have signed on to use the EHRs and more than 1,000 are expected to join by the end of 2008.
A spokeswoman for the NYC health department said the total investment in the EHR project is $60 million.
That level of participation will make PCIP the nation's largest community network of EHRs, Bloomberg said.
New York is “at the forefront of health [information technology] for a citywide implementation,” said Kristina Mulholland, a social services and health care analyst at Input.
She added that most of the EHR activity has occurred at the regional level.
PCIP developed the EHRs in conjunction with eClinicalWorks. New York’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene chose the company through a competitive-bidding process.
State officials evaluated bidders against a federal standard established by the Certification Commission for Healthcare IT, according to the city’s Web site. The EHR deal is worth $19.8 million, eClinicalWorks said.
The health department offers a subsidized package of EHR software and services to eligible medical practices, which the city defines as those with more than 30 percent Medicaid and uninsured patients. Participating practices must pay for hardware and network infrastructure and contribute $4,000 to the Fund for Public Health in New York for ongoing technical support.
Bloomberg said EHR usage will reduce paperwork and help prevent medical errors. Dr. Thomas Frieden, New York City’s health commissioner, added that EHR adoption also helps with preventive care by giving doctors and patients tools to better manage conditions such as high cholesterol.
Elsewhere in the state, EHR vendor MedPlus Inc. announced area three health information exchanges are deploying its systems.
Installations of the company’s Clinical Portal and Data Exchange Engine are under way at Manhattan’s New York Clinical Information Exchange, Albany’s Health Information Exchange of New York and the Brooklyn Health Information Exchange. MedPlus first announced its technology agreement with the Brooklyn exchange in December.
All three deployments have qualified for Phase 1 grants under the Healthcare Efficiency and Affordability Law for New Yorkers (HEAL NY). The grants, which were announced in May 2006, stipulate that the exchanges must be operational in the third quarter of 2008.
The grant program supports the development of health information technology at the regional level, according to the New York State Department of Health.
MedPlus, the health information technology subsidiary of Quest Diagnostics, will provide the three New York HIEs with consulting, project management, design and implementation services in support of its technology.
About the Author
John Moore is a freelance writer based in Syracuse, N.Y. You can reach him at editor@govhealthit.com.