ONC Touts Regional IT Centers

About one-third of the nation's primary care providers have signed up with a national assistance network for help in purchasing, installing and using electronic health records, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT announced this week.

More than half of the 100,000 primary care providers registering with their local ONC regional extension center are in small private practices or a consortium of small practices, ONC officials said Thursday on the Health IT Buzz blog. The average small practice registering for EHR implementation assistance has just two physicians, ONC said.

The other providers were community health centers, public hospitals, and providers in underserved areas, including critical-access hospitals and rural health clinics.

ONC proclaimed that the 100,000 milestone means "momentum is building" for meaningful use of EHRs by the nation's primary care physicians and clinics.

"This evidence demonstrates that [regional extension centers] are working with the practices and organizations the program was designed to help -- the providers with the least resources to make the transformation to meaningful use of EHRs," ONC said on the blog.

RECs help practices with EHR implementation and project management, health IT education and training, vendor selection and financial consultation, practice and workflow redesign, privacy and security, ongoing technical assistance, and connecting with state and national health information exchanges.

"The RECs are playing an integral role in helping providers on the path to EHR adoption," Dr. Farzad Mostashari, the national coordinator for health IT, said in a news release. "This compelling milestone demonstrates strong interest in adoption and meaningful use among community health centers, small practices and rural providers that can lead to improvements in health and health care."