Next month, three Cleveland community health centers are set to receive about $2.7 million in federal stimulus funding to transition to electronic health record systems and undertake other projects, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.
The three facilities, designated as federally qualified health centers, are:
- Care Alliance;
- Neighborhood Family Practice; and
- Northeast Ohio Neighborhood Health Services.
The federal economic stimulus package allocates $1.5 billion in infrastructure spending for FQHCs over the next two years. In addition, the stimulus package also will allot about $33 billion in Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments for health care providers that use EHRs.
Project Details
Implementing EHRs will allow FQHCs to share patient data with other EHR-equipped hospitals in the region.
In addition, the initiative could:
- Boost patients' understanding of health conditions;
- Improve chronic disease management; and
- Reduce costs from duplicate tests.
Care Alliance and Neighborhood Family Practice are working to select an easy-to-use EHR system that is compatible with the technology used at the Cleveland Clinic and MetroHealth.
Northeast Ohio Neighborhood expects to launch its system next month (Wu, Cleveland Plain Dealer, 6/20).