Complete Listing of Regional Extension Centers for
each State
Quality Insight of Pennsylvania has
been awarded the grant to establish Regional
Extension Centers in Eastern and Westen PA.
What is PA REACH
East?
Regional Extension and Assistance Center for HIT
serving eastern Pennyslvania
What is PA REACH
West?
Regional Extension and Assistance Center for HIT
serving western Pennyslvania
What is PA REACH West?
PA REACH West is the Regional Extension and
Assistance Center for HIT (REACH) in Western
Pennsylvania.
PA REACH West is one of the non-profit organizations
across the nation that has been awarded federal
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)
dollars to support the development of regional
extension centers (RECs). These centers are being
set up to aid health centers and medical
professionals as they work to implement and use
certified health information technology and achieve
health improvement outcomes through "meaningful use.
Regional health information technology extension
centers (RECs) were created out of the ARRA HITECH
Action - Section 3012, and are under the U.S. DHHS
Office of the National Coordinator for Health
Information Technology (ONC).
PA REACH West is a unique collaboration of several
state organizations focused on improving health care
quality and access. The partners are the University
of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and Pittsburgh
Regional Health Initiative.
At the present time, PA REACH West is being
operationalized and staffed to fulfill the HITECH
Act objective of making health information
technology accessible and assisting providers in
using technology in a meaningful way to improve
health outcomes.
This new federal initiative will initially be funded
for two years and is expected to be supported for a
total of four years.
Overview of what PA Reach West can provide:
What will PA REACH West do?
As a designated federal Regional Extension Center,
PA REACH West will offer education, technical
assistance, guidance, and information on best
practices to support and accelerate health care
centers' and providers' efforts to become meaningful
users of certified electronic health record (EHR)
systems. These services will be provided on a
subsidized basis to eligible entities, with priority
to be given to primary care providers and certain
critical access hospitals. Services also will be
available on a fee basis to all health care
providers in the state.
In particular, PA REACH West will use its HIT/EHR
knowledge and experience to work one-on-one with
small practices and offer technical expertise in
managing relationships with vendors, share knowledge
of software implementation, and provide an
understanding of work-flow change and quality
improvement methods.
The Regional Extension Centers will focus their most
intensive technical assistance on clinicians
(physicians, physician assistants, and nurse
practitioners) furnishing primary-care services,
with a particular emphasis on individual and small
group practices (fewer than 10 clinicians with
prescriptive privileges). Clinicians in such
practices deliver the majority of primary care
services, but have the lowest rates of adoption of
EHR systems, and the least access to resources to
help them implement, use and maintain such systems.
The consistent, nationwide adoption and use of
secure EHRs will ultimately enhance the quality and
value of health care. By assisting health care
providers, these outreach, education, and technical
assistance services will help to accelerate these
outcomes.
Among the services and benefits that will be
provided by PA REACH West are:
-
Consultation and assistance with
EHR implementation, effective use, upgrading,
and ongoing maintenance
-
Guidance and training on
achieving "meaningful use"
-
Information about
Medicare/Medicaid incentive payments
-
Hosted EHR systems (certified)
-
Development of health data
analysis, extraction and report applications
-
Integration of health
information technology, including electronic
health records, into the initial and ongoing
training of health professionals
-
Training on privacy (HIPAA),
security, data storage, etc.
-
Group purchasing opportunities
-
Support for participation in
health information exchanges
-
Active dissemination of best
practices
Access to expert advice and
capabilities from federal agencies
One-on-one technical assistance will be a key
service PA REACH West makes available to priority
primary care providers, and will represent a
significant portion of the center's activities. As a
Regional Extension Center, PA REACH West will be
expected to work with both priority primary care
providers and critical access hospitals who have not
yet adopted EHR systems, and with priority primary
care providers and critical access hospitals that
have existing EHR systems, to assist them in
achieving meaningful use of certified EHR
technology.
Regional Extension Centers will also help providers
achieve, through appropriate available
infrastructures, exchange of health information in
compliance with applicable statutory and regulatory
requirements, and patient preferences. PA REACH West
will work with the Pennsylvania Health Information
Exchange (PHIX) on these activities.
Finally, this initiative will leverage the ongoing
work to integrate the medical home model activities
already underway in Pennsylvania. These aim to
transform our state's health care delivery system
and improve the health of our rural population.
What is PA REACH East?
PA REACH East is the Regional Extension and
Assistance Center for HIT (REACH) in Eastern
Pennsylvania.
PA REACH East is one of the non-profit organizations
across the nation that has been awarded federal
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)
dollars to support the development of regional
extension centers (RECs). These centers are being
set up to aid health centers and medical
professionals as they work to implement and use
certified health information technology and achieve
health improvement outcomes through "meaningful use.
Regional health information technology extension
centers (RECs) were created out of the ARRA HITECH
Action - Section 3012, and are under the U.S. DHHS
Office of the National Coordinator for Health
Information Technology (ONC).
PA REACH East is a unique collaboration of several
state organizations focused on improving health care
quality and access. The partners are Crozer-Keystone
Health System, Public Health Management Corporation,
Lancaster General Hospital, the Pennsylvania Academy
of Family Physicians and Thomas Jefferson
University.
At the present time, PA REACH East is being
operationalized and staffed to fulfill the HITECH
Act objective of making health information
technology accessible and assisting providers in
using technology in a meaningful way to improve
health outcomes.
This new federal initiative will initially be funded
for two years and is expected to be supported for a
total of four years.
What will PA REACH East do?
As a designated federal Regional Extension Center,
PA REACH East will offer education, technical
assistance, guidance, and information on best
practices to support and accelerate health care
centers' and providers' efforts to become meaningful
users of certified electronic health record (EHR)
systems. These services will be provided on a
subsidized basis to eligible entities, with priority
to be given to primary care providers and certain
critical access hospitals. Services also will be
available on a fee basis to all health care
providers in the state.
In particular, PA REACH East will use its HIT/EHR
knowledge and experience to work one-on-one with
small practices and offer technical expertise in
managing relationships with vendors, share knowledge
of software implementation, and provide an
understanding of work-flow change and quality
improvement methods.
The Regional Extension Centers will focus their most
intensive technical assistance on clinicians
(physicians, physician assistants, and nurse
practitioners) furnishing primary-care services,
with a particular emphasis on individual and small
group practices (fewer than 10 clinicians with
prescriptive privileges). Clinicians in such
practices deliver the majority of primary care
services, but have the lowest rates of adoption of
EHR systems, and the least access to resources to
help them implement, use and maintain such systems.
The consistent, nationwide adoption and use of
secure EHRs will ultimately enhance the quality and
value of health care. By assisting health care
providers, these outreach, education, and technical
assistance services will help to accelerate these
outcomes.
Among the services and benefits that will be
provided by PA REACH East are:
Consultation and assistance with EHR implementation,
effective use, upgrading, and ongoing maintenance
-
Guidance and training on
achieving "meaningful use"
-
Information about
Medicare/Medicaid incentive payments
-
Hosted EHR systems (certified)
-
Development of health data
analysis, extraction and report applications
-
Integration of health
information technology, including electronic
health records, into the initial and ongoing
training of health professionals
-
Training on privacy (HIPAA),
security, data storage, etc.
-
Group purchasing opportunities
-
Support for participation in
health information exchanges
-
Active dissemination of best
practices
-
Access to expert advice and
capabilities from federal agencies
One-on-one technical assistance will
be a key service PA REACH East makes available to
priority primary care providers, and will represent
a significant portion of the center's activities. As
a Regional Extension Center, PA REACH East will be
expected to work with both priority primary care
providers and critical access hospitals who have not
yet adopted EHR systems, and with priority primary
care providers and critical access hospitals that
have existing EHR systems, to assist them in
achieving meaningful use of certified EHR
technology.
Regional Extension Centers will also help providers
achieve, through appropriate available
infrastructures, exchange of health information in
compliance with applicable statutory and regulatory
requirements, and patient preferences. PA REACH East
will work with the Pennsylvania Health Information
Exchange (PHIX) on these activities.
Finally, this initiative will leverage the ongoing
work to integrate the medical home model activities
already underway in Pennsylvania. These aim to
transform our state's health care delivery system
and improve the health of our rural population.
