For those concerned about the digital divide growing wider and deeper with the push for EHR adoption among providers, have no fear.
The plan that the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has laid out takes very seriously the need for leveling the playing field for EHR implementation. If rural and disadvantaged communities across the country in every state don't have broadband or the expertise to deploy EHR systems, the vision will not be realized.
David Blumenthal, MD, head of ONC, reiterated the commitment to these communities when he addressed a rural health IT conference sponsored by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). He advised new health IT extension centers to focus on helping rural healthcare providers get up and running with their EHR deployments.
Not only are the regional extension centers, or RECs, going to be an invaluable resource for rural healthcare providers, so will the ONC-funded beacon communities. These designated communities, which are early, successful adopters of health IT, will be able to provide lessons learned and best practices to help speed implementation and ensure that the transition is as seamless and smooth as can be.
Execution, of course, is everything. The RECs and beacon communities must be held accountable, Warren Jones, health policy professor at University of Mississippi Medical Center, advocates. He's absolutely right. The resources are there, but they must be used in a way that ensures the rural healthcare providers' needs are met. That means working collaboratively with the local providers - not working in a top-down approach. Each small practice that successfully gets up and running should be a health IT champion that helps the next small practice, thereby creating a trusted community among local providers.
The rest of this year will be critical in terms of RECs and beacon communities reaching out to these providers. We'll be watching how they execute the master plan that ONC has created for eliminating the digital divide in the healthcare industry.
Patty Enrado blogs daily at EHRWatch.com.
