Governor Schweitzer Encourages Montana EHR Collaborative Dialogue on Rural/Urban Health Information Connectivity
Healthcare decision-makers in the Pacific Northwest are prioritizing Electronic Health Records (EHRs) as critical to Montana’s healthcare infrastructure. The Montana EHR Collaborative (MEHRC), a group of cross-industry leaders, will converge with key healthcare stakeholders in an August 12-13 meeting to assess the potential for joining rural and urban care communities via a consolidated, statewide e-health initiative. The goal of MEHRC is to move healthcare stakeholders from contemplation to vigorous action in the electronic healthcare arena.
(PRWEB) July 8, 2005 -- Healthcare decision-makers in the Pacific Northwest
are prioritizing Electronic Health Records (EHRs) as critical to Montana’s
healthcare infrastructure. The Montana EHR Collaborative (MEHRC), a group of
cross-industry leaders, will converge with key healthcare stakeholders in an
August 12-13 meeting to assess the potential for joining rural and urban care
communities via a consolidated, statewide e-health initiative. The goal of MEHRC
is to move healthcare stakeholders from contemplation to vigorous action in the
electronic healthcare arena.
"Providing quality, affordable healthcare
is a top priority. This conference is an excellent first step in looking at ways
technology can help us deliver better healthcare services to the people of
Montana,” said Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer. Improving state healthcare has
been high on the governor’s agenda since his inauguration early this year.
“Our gorgeous state has a distinguished history of providing quality
health care to our citizens, but Montana’s geography challenges our providers
who serve more than a million residents across 145,500 square miles,” says
Raymond F. Rogers, Chief Development Officer, National Center for Health Care
Informatics, one of three organizations sponsoring the MEHRC Conference.
Montana’s scale –approximately 58 times the size of the similarly populated
Delaware, for example –creates unique logistic demands on sharing patient
information among regions.
“Our quality of healthcare can no longer be
compromised because our citizens choose to live in the intermountain states,”
says Dwight Hiesterman, MD, clinical consultant with the Mountain-Pacific
Quality Health Foundation, a MEHRC partnering organization. “Paper records are
an anathema, given that many of our citizens travel 50 miles to see their
primary care physician or up to 300 miles to see a specialist,” he says. “It’s
incumbent upon healthcare leaders to become more efficient and improve
communication, which will in turn improve patient outcomes.”
The Montana
EHR Collaborative Conference is open to all providers in Montana considering a
transition to EHR. The event features a full-spectrum of healthcare stakeholders
in dialogue throughout two days of educational forums and sessions. Topics will
range from analyzing frameworks for achieving statewide goals to assessing EHR
best-practices for individual provider initiatives.
“This commitment to
connect the state’s providers with patients is inspiring,” says Carolyn Hartley,
President and CEO of Physicians EHR, and also an event sponsor. “You can’t get
from paper to electronic transaction by flipping a switch. The healthcare
industry is incredibly complex and Montana’s healthcare leaders are doing the
right thing by inviting fellow stakeholders into a productive discussion at this
August meeting. With a 50/50 ratio of rural/urban residents, Montana is in a
position to become a significant leader in rural connectivity,” says Hartley who
is also lead author of EHR Implementation, A Step by Step Guide for the Medical
Practice (AMA Press, Feb. 2005), and will guide much of the conference’s
practical discussion. MEHRC has established a website (www.mtech.edu/nchci/ehrconference.htm) for ongoing conference
information.
About the National Center for Health Care Informatics:
NCHCI is a non-profit corporation in the state of Montana dedicated to
improving data and information management in health care. NCHCI acts under a
federal grant to build a national reference and research center—and has assisted
in creating the first undergraduate degree in Health Care Informatics in the
nation at Montana Tech in Butte. Graduates of the Health Care Informatics
program will interface between clinicians and IT professionals to help design,
implement and monitor systems for hospitals and other health care facilities.
About the Mountain-Pacific Quality Health Foundation (MPQHF):
MPQHF
is a physician-sponsored quality improvement organization under contract with
the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, an agency of the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services, to oversee healthcare quality issues for Medicare
beneficiaries. MPQHF is poised to assist hospitals and physician offices in the
adoption and implementation of Health Information Technology to improve
healthcare for Montanans. www.mpqhf.org
About Physicians EHR, LLC:
Physicians EHR advises physicians on planning for consumer driven health
care, patient communication strategies, electronic medical records, electronic
health records and personal health records, along with Privacy and Security
implementation tactics. Physicians EHR is a leader in physician education, with
significant contributions to dozens of healthcare information technology books
and video courses for the American Medical Association. Physicians EHR opinions
and surveys are sought by national HIT and compliance organizations as well as
numerous medical societies. The company serves family practitioners,
specialists, nurse practitioners, public health clinics, hospice and home health
care providers seeking to move affordably and efficiently into HIT use. www.physiciansehr.com
Contact:
Raymond F.
Rogers
Chief Development Officer
National Center for Health Care
Informatics
406.496.4821
e-mail protected from spam bots
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/7/prweb259101.htm