Portrait of Patricia Dombrowski

How the Region A Community College Consortia Is Training Health IT Professionals

Patricia Dombrowski | June 7, 2012

In late 2009, educators in the 10 northwestern states banded together to answer the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s (ONC) call for the nation’s community colleges to help train the health IT professionals needed to help providers and hospitals make the transition to adopting and meaningfully using certified electronic health records (EHRs).

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Portrait of Christina Markle

Beacon Community Program’s Second Anniversary: A Story from the Field and Successes from Year 2

Christina Markle | June 4, 2012

Celebrating the second anniversary of the Beacon Community Program is about telling our stories, and reaching out to other communities as they begin their own health IT implementation. The Beacon Community Program office wants to acknowledge the on-the-ground work of Beacon Communities nationwide. If you haven’t yet personally received care from one of the many providers connected to a Beacon Community, this is what real people in the field are sharing about their experience with Beacons.

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Portrait of Carol Bean

What to Do if You Have a Question about Your Certified EHR

Carol Bean | May 25, 2012

The ONC Certification Program staff receives comments and questions by phone and email that are related to the adoption, use, and implementation of certified EHR, as well as questions related to CMS’ Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs. The standards and certification criteria are intended to ensure that certified health information technology (health IT) products perform required functions that support better health and health care for patients. Many of the comments we receive come to us as complaints that a certified EHR product is not performing all of the functions that were required for certification.

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