UnitedHealthcare of Arizona has awarded a $200,000 grant to El Rio Community Health Center to help cover the cost of an electronic health record system, the Arizona Daily Star reports.
El Rio will use the grant, as well as $460,000 of its own money, to connect the EHR system to the Southern Arizona Health Information Exchange, El Rio Executive Director Kathy Byrne said.
To make EHR adoption more affordable, El Rio partnered with three other health centers in Arizona to share IT staff and key equipment, such as servers.
El Rio's Northwest and El Pueblo sites already have implemented the internal EHR system, and the rest of its 15 clinics will transition to EHRs this year, Byrne said.
The EHR system will boost accuracy and safety, while reducing unnecessary duplicative tests, Byrne said. She added that the EHR system will save money over time but did not specify how much (Pallack, Arizona Daily Star, 5/1).