Local Doctor Champions Adoption of Electronic Health Records in West Texas

Jose Luna, M.D., chief clinical officer at Centro San Vicente Family Health Center, has been recognized as a Physician Champion by the West Texas Health Information Technology Regional Extension Center (WTxHITREC) for his leadership in the national transition toward electronic health records. The WTxHITREC is a program of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) F. Marie Hall Institute for Rural and Community Health.

With a history dating back to 1988, Centro San Vicente is a federally funded nonprofit community health center. The clinic provides a wide range of health services to its community including clinical care, onsite laboratory, imaging and pharmacy services, education and training and outreach.

Under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (stimulus bill), all Americans must have access to electronic health records (EHR) by 2014. Providers and consumers can feel confident that any changes in the health care reform bill will not affect the progress on the adoption and “meaningful use” of EHR. Doctors not using EHR will lose a percentage of their Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement fees starting in 2015.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology established the WTxHITREC as a regional extension center to help health care providers in West Texas adopt and use EHR in their practices.

The WTxHITREC will provide Centro San Vicente assistance in preparing the clinic in its drive toward meaningful use, help support connectivity though health information exchange and assist with EHR incentive attestation, Luna said.

“The benefits of EHR adoption for practitioners include rapid and thorough access to complete chart information, including labs and radiology, and easier and faster prescription refills with e-prescribe,” Luna said. “As for patients, physicians can trend and graph results enabling them to identify trends. They have the ability to show such trends and radiologic images online in the patient room to involve them in their care.”

Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments are available to eligible professionals and hospitals when they adopt, implement, upgrade or demonstrate meaningful use of a certified EHR. Payments, made through federal Medicare and Medicaid programs, mean physicians and other eligible professionals can qualify for as much as $44,000 through Medicare or $63,750 through Medicaid.

To support a successful implementation and ongoing adoption of EHR, Luna advises including training for all EHR users and identifying super users that can continue to train and support clinician users.

The National Vision for Regional Extension Centers was established by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. The office has established a nationwide network of 62 extension centers, each serving a defined geographic area, with the goal of helping 100,000 priority primary care providers adopt and successfully implement health information technology. Extension centers provide outreach, education and technical assistance to clinicians who serve the medically underserved, practice in settings of 10 providers or less or are affiliated with Federally Qualified Health Centers, rural health clinics, critical access hospitals or rural hospitals.

With a focus on primary care providers and rural and critical access hospitals, the WTxHITREC has served many health care professionals throughout the 108 western counties of Texas.

For more information on eligibility for e-records incentive payments and services provided by the WTxHITREC, call (806) 743-7960, email info@wtxhitrec.org or visit www.wtxhitrec.org.

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