Hospitals in the state and across the nation will begin registering with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services to qualify for Electronic Health Record Incentive Program payments set for distribution in May.
An electronic health record system will allow for a paperless medical record to be maintained and owned by the issuing health-care institution or provider.
Electronic health or medical records include easy to obtain information such as laboratory test orders and results, X-rays and patients’ dietary needs.
Other elements such as computerized orders from a primary health-care provider and care notes from doctors and nurses have proven more complicated and have taken software developers longer to integrate.
Ray Scott, the state coordinator for health-informa-tion technology, said in a recent telephone interview that the push toward electronic health records, at the end of the day, is not about the technology.
“It’s about what the technology can do to improve the care of the patient,” he said.
Some hospitals in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Region 6 could gain upwards of $6 million between Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements in the first year, said Travis Broome, a Dallas-based spokesman for the region encompassing Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and New Mexico. Other hospitals could face
penalties if an electronic health record system is not in place.Medicare said hospitals can be eligible for a $2 million base payment. The Medicaid payment, which is administered through a state entity, is also set with a $2 million base payment.
In order to receive the money, hospitals will be asked to demonstrate “meaningful use” - a collection of governmentspecified, electronic health record criteria, which includes items such as passing along an electronic copy of a patient’s health record.
The American Hospital Association in Chicago estimates that only 1.8 percent of hospitals nationwide have a system in place that would be able to meet the criteria. There are about 5,000 hospitals in the country.
Mercy Health Systems said it is among that group of hospitals expected to reap financial rewards for the investment and staff training efforts which have taken place over the last six years in preparation for some kind of pay back.
The faith-based health-care provider said it can potentially receive $140 million in federal payments for the more than $450 million it has invested in electronic health record technology at hospitals in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.
Proponents say an electronic health record will help improve patient care and reduce costs through the elimination of redundant lab tests, for example.
Larry Pearce, the physician in charge of St. Edward Mercy Health System’s electronic medical records, said having electronic health records means having one record, but that it doesn’t mean information about allergies and medication are not updated.
Records “don’t eliminate the responsibility of doctors and nurses to find out if that information is accurate, but it clearly establishes a foundation of information that travels with a patient.”
The idea to create a national electronic health record system for the for-profit health care industry stems from a 2004 presidential initiative that envisioned an exchange similar to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The department, through its national network of hospitals and clinics, comes closest to having an interconnected health record exchangein place.
In 2009, about $20 billion in federal stimulus dollars were allotted through the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act to achieve that. And previous federal budgets have also set aside money to build a national infrastructure needed to connect health care providers.
The state, through various grants and federal matching fund programs, continues to work toward developing an electronic health information infrastructure, the construction of which Scott is overseeing.
Scott, who was appointed to his new post last March, said the health care industry is being asked to rise to a new level and standard that it’s not had to perform at before.
“We are at the beginning, even for early adopters,” he said.
A small percentage of the 84 general and acute care hospitals in Arkansas will be able to make the first incentive program deadline.
Paul Cunningham, a spokesman for the Arkansas Hospital Association, said progress will likely be made by the larger hospital systems and stand alone hospitals.
Adoption of electronic medical record systems boils down to cost for the smaller, rural facilities, Cunningham said.
Frank Hilbert, the chief information officer at the 200-bed White River Medical Center in Batesville, said the community hospital has invested more than $9 million in its electronic health record system.
“We have some forward thinking physicians and board members,” Hilbert said, “and we wanted to improve our patients’ experience.”
Pearce, of Mercy Health System in Fort Smith, said its record system went live in September. The Catholic health care operator with its headquarters in suburban St. Louis, plans to add more features to its health record system serving affiliate hospitals in Waldron, Ozark and Paris.
Scott, of the Arkansas Health Information Technology Office, said Mercy deserved credit for the leadership it’s taken in implementing an electronic system.
The health care provider is an example of an organization that has made a major commitment and capital expenditure to put itself in the forefront of the process in the state, Scott said.
Pearce said electronic health records allow nurses and doctors to see what was done the last time a patient visited doctor’s office or hospital and “is of tremendous importance in the continuity of care.”
Business, Pages 63 on 02/20/2011