ONC envisions rural HIT ‘communities of practice’

张琨

ONC envisions rural HIT ‘communities of practice’By Mary Mosquera
Friday, April 23, 2010

Rural healthcare providers should be an early focus for new health IT extension centers, and future “beacon communities” will be a conduit for getting those providers better access to broadband connections, the national health IT coordinator told attendees at a recent meeting.
“We’re hoping there will be a rural community of practice formed as part of (the health IT extension center) process,” he said April 22 at a rural health IT conference sponsored by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) is also already working with the Departments of Agriculture and Commerce to improve that access to broadband technology, especially through beacon communities, he said.
ONC has awarded $643 million in grants for 60 health IT extension centers across the nation. They will provide hands-on support in the areas where providers practice to accelerate the adoption and meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs).
Under the beacon program, communities will act as models for other areas in connectivity and meaningful use of health IT. ONC has made available, but not yet awarded, $235 million in grants for 15 beacon” communities, up to five of which will be rural communities, Blumenthal said.
Those grants will help communities that already use health IT to fund and attain specific short-term improvements in the health of their population and the efficiency of their health systems.
Programs like these could help in regions like rural Mississippi, where the community health center and the physicians in places such as Holmes County have trouble accessing broadband unless they subscribe to satellite service. But that is “prohibitively expensive,” said Dr. Warren Jones, health policy professor at University of Mississippi Medical Center.
Some of the physicians he has visited in towns with less than 10,000 populations want to be early adopters. However, rural providers practice under significant administrative burden without adequate support.
“You’ve got to find a way to give them support and transitional assistance that will allow them to reorient their office practices, to better inculcate the benefits of EHRs and allow them to continue to deliver care without losing money,” he said.
That’s what the extension centers are for, but they have to be held accountable to make sure they do the job, Jones said.
He recommended surveying key small practices in communities to determine the most significant problems that extension centers should prioritize to assist providers. A business incubator for small practices that can mentor and show them the steps they need to take to adopt health IT, and provide the tools to do that, should also be developed