The regional extension centers serving New York have picked several "preferred" health IT firms for healthcare providers to choose from in their efforts to adopt electronic health records using federal meaningful use guidelines.
The NYeC Regional Extension Center, which serves New York state except for New York City, identified eClinicalWorks, Eclipsys, Greenway, NextGen and Sage as industry partners in their health IT education and consulting efforts.
The health IT companies agreed to provide "a higher base level of functionality and interoperability" to make sure that physicians and small practices had products that will enable them to become meaningful users, NYeC said on its Web site.
NYeC is a program from the New York eHealth Collaborative with support from the New York State Department of Health.
The extension center that serves New York City, NYC Regional Electronic Adoption Center for Health (NYC REACH), picked eClinicalWorks, MDLand International and Greenway as "preferred vendors." In addition, the center said it will also support health IT products from NextGen, Eclipsis, Athenahealth, and MedLink International
"By supporting a wider range of EHRs, we will be able to serve many more providers throughout New York City, ensuring that all EHR users have the tools to improve care quality," according to the REC.
NYC REACH is a collaboration between the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Fund for Public Health in New York.
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has awarded $643 million in grants to 60 organizations to establish regional extension centers throughout the nation under the HITECH Act.
The RECs are designed to give physicians and small practices a local resource for technical guidance and best practices in purchasing, deploying and incorporating EHRs in their office workflow so they can become meaningful users of the technology and qualify for incentive payments.
