Making a Connection: Clinics Collaborate on EHR Deployment
SA Kushinka of Full Circle Projects
December 2009
Electronic health record (EHR) technology has significant potential to enhance care for the safety-net populations served by California's community clinics and health centers. But there are financial and other barriers to successful adoption. To overcome these obstacles and achieve economies of scale, some clinics have joined together in networks to collaborate on EHR implementation, training, and maintenance.
The California Networks for Electronic Health Record Adoption (CNEA) initiative promotes networks by helping to develop centralized support hubs that provide technology, training, vendor management, and other services that community clinics require for EHR adoption.
This issue brief looks at the work of eight CNEA grantees and the four models of collaborative EHR deployment that they are engaged in:
- The national network model — building or leveraging existing EHR networks;
- The clinic consortia model — expanding the EHR product and implementation services to additional members;
- The multi-site expansion model — expanding adoption of the product and services to additional clinic sites; and
- The hospital-based regional extension model — partnering with a local hospital to extend the product and services in a region or service area.
The various implementation services that networks offer, along with their perceived benefits and trade-offs, are discussed in detail.
The complete issue brief is available under Document Downloads below.