BridgeFront, a company that provides online education for healthcare, government, business and education, and OCHIN, an Oregon-based health IT service organization for community-based clinics, together will develop a library of more than 50 online courses to address the challenges of complying with meaningful use criteria.
Courses will be delivered via BridgeFront's Online Education Center to up to 3,000 members of O-HITEC - Oregon's Health IT Regional Extension Center, one of 62 similar federally designated centers across the country.
O-HITEC is responsible for helping more than 3,000 Oregon primary care providers install certified electronic health record systems and help them comply with the meaningful use standards.
"The BridgeFront partnership will help us to deliver educational tools and systems that help Oregon primary care providers achieve the federal definition of meaningful use," said Clayton Gillett, director of O-HITEC. "We're confident BridgeFront's expertise in online education development and delivery will complement our mission by offering our membership an immediate and positive value through this relationship."
The new library of courses will cover key topics such as e-prescribing, evidenced-based best practice and decision support, and a variety of practice management courses. Compliance with these standards makes it possible for individual providers to qualify for up to $44,000 in Medicare or up to $64,000 in Medicaid incentive payments from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
"OCHIN is at the forefront of EHR adoption," said Peter N. Cizik, CEO of BridgeFront. "They understand the challenges and have a clear vision of what it really takes to assist in meaningful use efforts. Our goal is simple: develop the best meaningful use courses available and simplify the challenges faced by healthcare providers."
Once OCHIN/O-HITEC members have access to BridgeFront's Online Education Center, they will also have the flexibility to complete additional education from BridgeFront's course library. Topics include HIPAA compliance, revenue cycle, customer communications, nursing and leadership development.
