NEW: National Health IT Week to Honor RI Regional Extension Center

NEW: National Health IT Week to Honor RI Regional Extension Center

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has announced that it will feature the Rhode Island Regional Extension Center (RI REC) on Thursday, September 19, as part of the National Heatlh IT Week. Officials chose to highlight the RI REC due to its work with CurrentCare, the Rhode Island’s statewide Health Information Exchange (HIE).

RI Regional Extension Center

RI REC, a service of the Rhode Island Quality Institute (RIQI) serves 1,193 healthcare providers including primary care physicians and specialists. The RI REC has helped 652 providers reach Meaningful Use and offers additional resources that build off of meaningful use of EHRs and enhance patient engagement.

CurrentCare

The CurrentCare Viewer is a Web-based portal that provides up-to-date clinical information for over 320,000 enrolled patients from CurrentCare’s 47 data-sharing partners. Patients’ records include lab test results, medication history, imaging results, and information about physician, hospital, and emergency room visits. The CurrentCare Viewer is being used in over 160 caregiver sites with over 1,000 Viewer users.

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CurrentCare Hospital Alerts support care coordination and care transition management to reduce hospital readmissions. This service notifies primary care providers via timely, secure Direct messages when their enrolled patients have an inpatient or emergency department admission and subsequent discharge at a participating hospital. There are currently 90 provider sites in Rhode Island using this service.

“CurrentCare is easy to use and I plan to use it more and more. Interestingly, it has become a conversation at sick visits that are ER or urgent care facility follow-ups, meaning I am typically suggesting patients sign up for it to avoid unnecessary waiting while my staff tracks down information related to a previous ER visit,” said Chad P. Nevola, MD. I'm adding it to my favorites on all terminals for easy access within the exam room!”

National Health IT Week

Initially designed to raise national awareness of health information technology, National Health IT week offers the opportunity for some celebration in its eighth year. Today more than 38 percent of physicians have adopted a basic electronic health record and over 145,000 providers, supported by Regional Extension Centers nationwide, are moving through the stages of meaningful use – a set of standards that governs the use of electronic health records.

Health IT

The integration of Health IT into medical practices will continue to improve care coordination and communication for patients everywhere. As Health IT continues to play an important role in changing healthcare, the RECs are prepared to deliver ongoing support to a wide variety of providers.

To learn more about RI REC and CurrentCare visit the RI REC website at www.DocEHRtalk.org.