ACCP and HIMSS Provide Health IT and EHR Resources

EHR adoption. ARRA. HIT.  Most, if not all physicians are well aware of these terms and topics. But don’t’ despair if you’re not up to speed on all the acronyms. I just did a quick peek at Twitter and “Spring Break,” “Bracket,” and “Health Care Bill” are still way ahead of EHR as a trending topic.

One of the hot aspects of EHRs is the requirement criteria for showing “meaningful use” in order to be eligible for financial incentives. In fact, now that the comment period is over, there’s a lot of discussion about changing the criteria.  Just do a Google search for “EHR meaningful use” and you’ll get something like 567,000 hits.

ACCP Has Resources For You!
Because the EHR topic is so hot in the news, and healthcare reform is imminent, it’s a good time to read up on EHRs and health IT.

ACCP has just the ticket! ACCP has  partnered with the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) to provide educational resources about EHR and health IT adoption.  You can find these resources in the ACCP's Practice Management section, here:

http://www.chestnet.org/accp/practice-management/ehr-and-health-it-resou...

Included in these resources are:
•    Signup for the free HIMSS Digital Office Newsletter
•    EMR Implementation Guide Online Course (free to view)
•    HIMSS Webinars on EHRs/health IT
•    HIMSS has a whole section of their web site devoted to EHRs
•    Links to the AMA’s Health Information Technology web site
•    Links to Meaningful Use Criteria documents and resources
•    And more!

ACCP is excited about this partnership with HIMSS and about the opportunity to put these resources at the click of a mouse.  ACCP knows their members need access to such resources, that will help them assess their needs and make informed decisions about EHRs/health IT, that help them run their practices more effectively and efficiently.

PS: If you’ve been in a coma for the past year, or you just want to brush up on it because it’s more interesting than doing your taxes, Physicians Practice magazine has a nice primer article by Ken Terry, called “The EHR Stimulus: A Complete Primer. How to get Uncle Sam’s money, and whether you should”.  It’s a nice overview of the topic, although it is from 2009, which means it’s approaching stegosaurus status in today’s information world.

Also, the AMA has a nice page for Health IT resources and activities, here.

ACCP hopes you find these resources helpful and useful in your health IT/EHR adoption activities. And a big Rocket Surgery shout out to Priyal Patel of ACCP for her helpful assistance with this blog post! 

 

About the Author

Stephen Welch

Senior Vice President, Communications
Executive Editor, CHEST

This blog, "It Ain't Rocket Surgery" is intended to help busy health-care professionals find useful online and mobile resources that will enhance their self-education and professional research efforts, or point out important topics of discussion related to online information and content. The blog's title is a Yogi Berra style mash-up of two common phrases, "it ain't brain surgery" and "it ain't rocket science". I hope it will be casual, fun, insightful, and -- most of all -- educational.

You can follow me on Twitter. 

I currently serve ACCP as the Senior Vice President of Communications, as well as the Executive Editor of CHEST, the ACCP’s flagship journal. During my 15 years here, ACCP has focused on growing and developing the editorial, technological, and business aspects of the College. We are constantly striving to make the journal and other ACCP educational content as accessible and useful to clinicians as possible.

When not at work, I like to spend time scuba diving with sharks, collecting original comic book artwork, exploring the digital world, and searching for good BBQ.

Your feedback about the blog is always appreciated. So are tips on good BBQ joints.