Hospitals and doctors throughout the region are getting cash for ditching paper charts in favor of electronic patient records.
Summa Health System’s Akron City and St. Thomas hospitals recently received more than $5.1 million in federal incentives after meeting initial goals for adopting computerized health records.
The incentives were established in 2009 by the federal stimulus bill to encourage the adoption of electronic health records.
To qualify for the initial payments through Medicare and Medicaid, hospitals and doctors must attest that they have installed and started using a certified system.
The first of three stages of “meaningful use” standards include the ability to enter doctors’ orders electronically and provide automatic feedback about possible dosing errors and other safety concerns, Summa Vice President and Chief Information Officer Greg Kall said.
Qualifying systems also must check for drug interaction, track patient demographics, record vital signs and other patient information, capture and report communicable diseases to public health agencies and perform other functions.
For patients, the move to computerized records should mean fewer duplicated tests and better access to their health information when it’s needed, said Dr. Brian Keaton, Akron General Health System’s chief medical information officer.
Keaton provided input on the federal initiative while president of the American College of Emergency Physicians.
“If you come in really sick, for me to be able to tap into your record and look at your information, that could be the difference between you living and dying,” he said.
Akron General is investing about $16.8 million in hardware, software, services and staff time to achieve the federal standards, said Dave Fiser, vice president and chief information officer. The health system expects to get about $13 million to $14 million worth of the costs back through the incentives, beginning with $950,000 in Medicaid incentives this year.
Hospitals and physician practices that don’t meet the requirements by 2015 can be penalized with reduced Medicare payments.
Kall estimates Summa’s Akron City, St. Thomas, Barberton and Wadsworth-Rittman hospitals and physician practices would lose $26 million in Medicare payments between 2015 and 2019 if the federal benchmarks aren’t achieved.
Summa started moving toward paperless patient records with a $26 million computerized physician-order entry system launched in 2007 at City and St. Thomas hospitals. Instead of writing down which medicines or tests patients need while hospitalized, doctors enter the orders into a secure, Internet-based system.
Summa has invested an additional $7 million in recent years to expand its capabilities to meet the federal meaningful use standards, Kall said.
Upgrades in region
The Cleveland Clinic was among the first hospitals in the nation to meet the initial set of electronic health record criteria for the incentive payments.
The clinic and two of its suburban hospitals were three of only seven hospitals statewide and 147 nationwide to receive incentives through the Medicare program by the end of September, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
University Hospitals in Cleveland indicated it’s in the process of qualifying and expects to achieve the requirements for incentives in 2012.
Mercy Medical Center in Canton attested to reaching the first requirements through the Medicaid program in November, spokeswoman Cindy Hickey said. The hospital will apply for the Medicare incentives in early 2013.
Aultman Hospital in Canton is providing proof that it has a certified electronic medical record system for the Medicaid program and expects to receive about $900,000, spokeswoman Tiffany Pellegrene said. The hospital plans to achieve meaningful use status through the Medicare incentive program in 2013.
As a pediatric hospital, Akron Children’s Hospital gets incentives through Medicaid, which covers poor children.
The hospital will launch a certified electronic medical records system in June, said Tom Ogg, vice president and chief information officer. The upgrade at Children’s will integrate patient records from all offices and inpatient and outpatient facilities by 2014.
“Everybody will get access to the critical information they need at the point of care,” he said.
Thousands seek incentives
According to preliminary CMS data, 2,868 of the 5,000 eligible hospitals nationwide had registered for incentives through Medicare and/or Medicaid as of Nov. 30. About $1.8 billion in incentives were paid to doctors and hospitals by the federal programs.
Doctors can receive as much as $18,000 in Medicare incentives the first year they adopt electronic medical records, Kall said.
So far, 40 doctors in the Summa Physicians Inc. practice have attested to meeting the first set of requirements, he said. Another 18 are expected to apply for the incentives by year’s end.
The Akron Regional Hospital Association is receiving $3.9 million to serve as one of seven regional extension centers designated statewide to help primary-care doctors adopt electronic medical records.
The initiative has assisted 905 doctors in Medina, Portage, Stark, Summit, Wayne, Ashland, Holmes, Tuscarawas, Carroll, Harrison and Richland counties, said Jim Carroll, director of the Northeast-Central Ohio Regional Extension Center. About 70 have achieved the first set of federal benchmarks.
Cheryl Powell can be reached at 330-996-3902 or chpowell@thebeaconjournal.com.
