Helping Maine Providers Achieve Meaningful Use of EHRs

To help Maine physicians and other providers adopt and use electronic health records (EHRs) to improve care, the federal government has established the HITECH program to provide incentive payments and assistance for EHR use. HealthInfoNet, Maine’s health information exchange, received a HITECH grant to serve as the Maine Regional Extension Center (MEREC) to offer primary care physician practices assistance to select, adopt, and use certified EHRs to improve patient care. For more information on the MEREC, see Getting to Meaningful Improvement (slides), or www.hinfonet.org. For CMS slide set, see Medicare & Medicaid EHR Incentive Program_08-10.

The MEREC has contracted with Quality Counts to provide quality improvement expertise, guidance, and support for linking EHR adoption with clinical improvement. In this role, Quality Counts is responsible for ensuring that the overall efforts of the MEREC and its vendors are guided by a framework of continuous quality improvement, aligning EHR adoption with other quality improvement efforts in the state, and supporting primary care providers to achieve meaningful use and meaningful improvements in care. Using a data-driven approach, Quality Counts will work with the MEREC to align EHR adoption with quality measurement and improvement, and will promote the sharing and exchange of best practices through its statewide learning network of primary care practices.

Specific activities being offered by Quality Counts in support of the MEREC include the following:

• Information, resources, and tools for providers summarizing the federal incentive program for EHR adoption and meaningful use
• Educational webinars and technical assistance for provider practices to promote understanding of federal meaningful use regulations and reporting requirements
• Information and tools showing the linkages between meaningful use and other quality improvement activities, such as medical home recognition
• Bi-annual educational forums to be offered in four regions across the state beginning in fall 2010. These sessions will introduce the services of the MEREC, facilitate access to MEREC-approved EHR vendors, outline expectations for meaningful use, and identify opportunities to utilize EHRs to achieve meaningful improvements in practice.  Click here to read more about the regional forums.