The Health IT Regional Extension Center Program: evolution and lessons for health care transformation.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Assess the Regional Extension Center (REC) program's progress toward its goal of supporting over 100,000 providers in small, rural, and underserved practices to achieve meaningful use (MU) of an electronic health record (EHR).

Data sources/study setting

Data collected January 2010 through June 2013 via monitoring and evaluation of the 4-year REC program.

Study design

Descriptive study of 62 REC programs.

Data collection/extraction methods

Primary data collected from RECs were merged with nine other datasets, and descriptive statistics of progress by practice setting and penetration of targeted providers were calculated.

Principal findings

RECs recruited almost 134,000 primary care providers (PCPs), or 44 percent of the nation's PCPs; 86 percent

SUBMITTER: Lynch K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3925411 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature