The California HealthCare Foundation is recommending that community and public health clinics consider banding together to acquire and maintain e-health records systems.
The foundation’s newly issued report calls this approach EHR networks. Unlike regional health information organizations, EHR networks aim to share resources rather than to exchange information.
The 10-page report, prepared for the foundation by Manatt Health Solutions, states that EHR networks can be advantageous for safety-net clinics, in comparison with individual clinics’ buying EHR systems from commercial vendors.
It notes that 90 percent of safety-net clinics have yet to adopt EHRs, primarily for cost reasons but also because of lack of other resources such as technical expertise. EHR networks can overcome some of these barriers, the report states.
EHR networks usually are a source of both the initial products and services for a clinic acquiring an EHR system, and also a source of continuing support after the initial implementation. Clinics may lack technical expertise and may need more support than other kinds of EHR buyers, the report says. When extended support is available from vendors, it can be expensive.
Another advantage: EHR networks of clinics share a common mission. Their systems are tailored to serve particular patient populations and clinics’ other requirements. User training also can be more nearly adapted to the clinics’ needs.
“EHR networks offer a collaborative approach to [health information technology] adoption by creating a community of clinics and health centers,” the report states.
Although EHR networks may offer economies of scale, they also may seem more expensive because their implementation services can be more thorough and long-lasting than a typical EHR vendor-customer relationship, it states.
The report includes examples of EHR networks and predicts that they will become more numerous, partly because the federal Health Resources and Services Administration has made 25 grants to create or expand them.
However, a clinic that already has a sound EHR may not benefit from joining an EHR network, the report states.
Government Health IT presents Rick Friedman, director of the division of state systems for the Center for Medicaid and State Operations with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in this recent eSeminar regarding how the federal Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services is partnering with state Medicaid and health and human services officials to bring Medicaid into the digital age. Paul McCloskey, Government Health IT editor, moderates.
