Ambulatory Professional Practicum prepares doc offices for EHR adoption

By Patty Enrado, Editor

CHICAGO — Healthcare IT funding within the economic stimulus package will provide  financial incentives for  physicians to adopt healthcare IT. Physician practices now more than ever will want to learn about best practices for EHR adoption as well as lessons learned. Physicians and their staff will need to prepare, to adopt HIT and HIMSS has a host of resources and tools to assist them said Mary Griskewicz, senior director of Ambulatory Information for HIMSS.

New this year, HIMSS09’s Ambulatory Professional Practicum, a series of three back-to-back education sessions scheduled on Sunday morning, April 5, before the opening keynote address, “dovetails” with all the exciting changes going on in the ambulatory world today, she said.

The Practicum, which is free to conference attendees, kicks off at 8:30 AM with “CMS’s EHR Physician Adoption Program Overview.” Jody Blatt, project director for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, will discuss the goals and provide an update on CMS’ five-year demonstration initiative to financially reward physician offices for high-quality care through the use of electronic health records, or EHRs. “One of the key themes is what is CMS doing with the 12 communities involved in the demonstration project,” Griskewicz said.

Armand Gonzalzles, MD, of the River Point Pediatrics, will present “Workflow Management EMR Systems and the Primary Care Physician,” at 9:45 AM. His physician practice successfully implemented an EHR system. “Physicians need to understand how EHRs impact patient and physician workflow,” Griskewicz said.

The Practicum ends with “EHR Adoption for the Medical Practice,” presented by LuAnn Kimker, RN, manager of Care Management for MassPRO, at 11:00 AM. Kimker will discuss the workflow analysis that must be conducted to understand the physician office’s current business and clinical operations prior to implementing an EHR system. “This is an opportunity for physicians to re-engineer and gain efficiencies for their office,” Griskewicz said.

“Given the current economic situation in the United States today, ambulatory practices should be looking at IT, specifically EHRs, as a tool to improve the quality of care for their patients,” she said.

“The economic stimulus law will allow physician incentives for EHR adoption,” she said. “Our goal with these sessions is to provide physicians, practice administrators, IT consultants and staff with the knowledge needed for ambulatory practice EMR adoption from government, industry and medical practice experts.”

No tags