REC Center Helping Doctors Develop Electronic Health Records
The UCF College of Medicine is honored to have received a $7.6 million federal grant to help Central Florida doctors develop and effectively use electronic health records to improve patient care. The college is developing a Health IT Regional Extension Center (REC) that will provide physicians with technical assistance, guidance, and best practices in implementation and use of electronic health records.
Regional Extension Centers are funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to “improve the quality and value of health care” by achieving widespread, meaningful use of health IT and providing use of an electronic health record for every person by the year 2014. That legislation gave authority to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) to provide incentives for healthcare providers who become meaningful users of certified electronic health records. The federal government recently defined the criteria for determining “meaningful use.” Those standards and other important information can be found at the UCF College of Medicine REC Web site, http://www.ucf-rec.org.
The UCF College of Medicine is already meeting with Central Florida physicians to provide assistance in electronic health records. The college’s goal is to reach 1,400 primary care physicians in the next nine months and to also extend services to specialists.
For more information on how the college can help you implement electronic health records, check out the REC web site or contact UCF College of Medicine Regional Extension Center Director Karen van Caulil, Ph.D. at 407.266.1307 or kvancaul@mail.ucf.edu.