EMRS

Mid-South practices have the opportunity to work with the Healthy Memphis Common Table to attract a large HHS grant which can be distributed to area doctors for EMR development: The Healthy Memphis Common Table has been invited to act as a convener for the Mid-South to develop an application to bring up to $12,500,000 into the region to help physician practices develop electronic health records (EHR).  U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) will select 12 initial sites in the U.S. to receive $150,000,000 collectively. Each chosen sites will then work with HHS to select 100 medical practices to receive a portion of the initial $12,500,000.  In addition to the incentive payments, bonus Medicare payments may be awarded based on a standardized survey measuring the number of EHR functionalities a physician group has incorporated into its practice. Total payments under the demonstration for all five years may be up to $58,000 per physician or $290,000 per practice.  For details, visit: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/DemoProjectsEvalRpts/MD/itemdetail.asp?itemID=CMS1204776
Related story: www.aafp.org/online/en/home/publications/news/news-now/practice-management/20080205leavitt-memphis.html

Memphis Medical Society partners with Digital Systems Solutions to provide Electronic Health Records to its membership: To assist its members in the evaluation and implementation of Electronic Health Record Systems for their clinics, The Memphis Medical Society reviewed a number of leading software companies and their systems. After careful consideration by its committee, eClinicalWorks from Digital Systems Solutions gained their stamp of approval. Digital Systems Solutions is excited to partner with The Memphis Medical Society to offer eClinicalWorks Electronic Health Record System to its members.  For more information see p. 24 of the Memphis Medical Society Spring, 2008 quarterly magazine. www.mdmemphis.org/resources/magazine/Spring

Five major physician groups are launching an online portal to help physicians transition from paper-based to electronic prescribing.  The American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Cardiology, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Medical Group Management Association are the groups launching the web site, which will offer guidance to an estimated 150,000 prescribers throughout the U.S. that are currently using electronic medical records and other clinical software to fax prescriptions to pharmacies. (http://www.getrxconnected.com/content/1/EMR-Users.aspx)

Starting on Jan. 1, 2009, all computer-generated prescriptions covered by the Medicare Part D program must be transmitted electronically and not by fax. Many users believe their EMRs are sending prescriptions to pharmacies electronically—but it’s likely that their system is actually generating a fax to the pharmacy, according to a written statement from the medical groups.

Through the new online resource, physicians will be able to find out if their existing software is compliant with the new Medicare regulations. It’s also intended for physicians and practice-management professionals that have yet to invest in EMRs.

The resource was created under the auspices of the Center for Improving Medication Management, which was founded in part by the MGMA and AAFP and other organizations, and educates physicians on implementing prescribing technology

Better Information Systems Can Save Lives!  And the best are those that allow care givers to find a patients records wherever they have been seen in their community.

Here are some links to some of the electronic medical record (EMR) vendors whose products are installed in Mid-South physician practices. These EMRs support linking health information throughout our communities.

• Allscripts/IDX
• Nextgen
• Cerner

Be sure to check out the DOQ-IT program -- a service of QSource, a not-for-profit healthcare consulting firm and the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) for Tennessee. DOQ-IT provides support to small and medium primary care practices in implementing EHRs.