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DOQ-IT
The electronic health records (EHR) industry is moving at an unprecedented, rapid pace. President Bush has emphasized the need to have all hospitals and physicians utilizing EHRs within the next 10 years and has made this a key healthcare initiative for the country.
Today, most hospitals have the capability and staff available to implement electronic medical technology; however, this is not the same situation that exists for physician offices. Many factors have contributed to this. Physician offices commonly cite the cost of EHR systems, fear of choosing the wrong system, and implementation concerns, as the primary reason for their failure to install electronic medical records. In addition, lack of centralized or organized technology resources has also limited EHR adoption, as a significant proportion of physician offices are small practices with fewer than four physicians per office. The mandate by President Bush to adopt electronic health records is having and will continue to have a significant impact on these practices.
Under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Masspro, through the CMS Doctor’s Office Quality -Information Technology (DOQ-IT) initiative, is providing consulting services to physician groups in Massachusetts to expedite the adoption of electronic health records. To date, Masspro has successfully signed over 1,500 physicians, representing over 450 practices to the CMS DOQ-IT initiative.
Masspro employs collaborative educational sessions and one-on-one consulting to make the transition from paper-based health records to an EHR system a smooth one. Through its collaboratives, Masspro has been successful in providing a network of collegial connections, as well as disseminating information to a large number of practices. Through its one-on-one consulting with physician offices, Masspro’s DOQ-IT team provides practice readiness assessments, education about EHR solutions, implementation assistance, workflow redesign, and consultation regarding EHR and quality improvement strategies.
Masspro’s success has come from its ability to reduce the complexity of the implementation process and remove the challenges that physician groups have in choosing the correct EHR system to meet their needs. Masspro’s success also lies in its staff who have extensive backgrounds in EHRs, office redesign, clinical redesign, and clinical information technology (IT).
Among the myriad benefits of EHR adoption, is improvement in the provision of key medical screenings for diseases such as diabetes and breast cancer. Patients in need of this type of testing are much less likely to go unnoticed by their providers.
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