Virginia collaborative to support primary care practices’ adoption of electronic health records – pilot practices needed to participate
19 October 2009
A statewide collaborative led by MSV and the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association (VHHA), and created at the behest of Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Resources Marilyn Tavenner, has been selected as a finalist for federal funds to help primary care providers implement electronic health records (EHR) in their practices. After grant funds are awarded in late 2009, the Virginia Health Information Technology Regional Extension Center is expected to serve more than 2,200 primary care physicians in small practices throughout Virginia. The Virginia Health Quality Center (VHQC) and CIT, a private-public partnership specializing in advancement of information technology, are serving as the co-applicants on Virginia’s application.
To build the strength of Virginia’s application for federal funds, the collaborative is seeking to identify practices that are interested in benefiting from the Center’s proposed services.
How will this program help me?
The regional extension center will support practices in the adoption of EHRs and help these providers achieve meaningful use of health information technology. Specifically, this support includes:
- Vendor selection and group purchasing discounts
- Educational programs
- Implementation and project management
- Practice and workflow redesign
- Privacy and security recommendations
- On-site technical assistance
Who will receive services from the regional extension center?
This grant opportunity is targeted for support of primary care providers. For the purposes of this program, a primary care provider is defined as a licensed doctor of medicine or osteopathy, physician assistant (PA), or nurse practitioner (NP) practicing family practice, obstetrics and gynecology, general internal or pediatric medicine. Priority will be given to providers in the following settings:
- Individuals and small group practices (ten or fewer MDs, DOs, NPs, and PAs) with prescriptive privileges primarily focused on primary care
- Public or Critical Access Hospitals
- Community Health Centers and Rural Health Clinics
- Other settings that primarily serve uninsured, underinsured, and medically underserved populations (i.e. free clinics and primary care providers serving in behavioral health facilities)
Will this program help my practice receive EHR-implementation stimulus dollars?
The federal government will make available in 2011 Medicaid and Medicare incentives for meaningful use of health information technology. A primary purpose of the regional extension center is to help qualified practices achieve meaningful use status and receive these federal funds. For more information on these incentives, click here.
How do I indicate my interest in participating?
Practices and physicians who meet the aforementioned qualifications and want to be among the first group of organizations to receive assistance from the regional extension center can indicate their interest by completing the Statement of Interest and returning it to VHQC by October 28, 2009. The practices that return this Statement of Interest will be in the first wave of groups receiving regional extension center support. While this is not a binding agreement, this statement does indicate that your practice is strongly interested in participating in this program.
When will the regional extension center begin serving practices?
If grant funds are awarded, the regional extension center will begin operations in early 2010. The regional extension center will contact the interested practices as soon as it is informed about the outcome of the grant application, and these organizations will be the first to receive support through the regional extension center. In addition, MSV will keep you up-to-date on these developments through its publications and Web site.
How can I learn more?
Click here to download the Statement of Interest form (PDF).
Click here to view the fact sheet.
For specific questions, please contact the Virginia Health Quality Center at extensioncenter@vhqc.org.