More than 1,000 Maryland doctors have signed up to adopt electronic medical records, state officials said today.
The primary care physicians are using records through a state network called the Chesapeake Regional Information System for our Patients (CRISP). They will receive state and federal incentives for using the computerized records.
Hundreds of other doctors are also using electronic records but may not have signed onto the state exchange.
Lt. Governor Anthony Brown made the announcement during a visit to the Charlestown Retirement Community in Cantonsville.
Governor Martin O’Malley and Brown have a goal to create a a health information exchange by the end of 2012 and encourage widespread use of electronic medical records. The records are also being pushed under federal healthcare reform.
Maryland has received nearly $27 million in federal funds to assist in the expansion of electronic records.
Advocates of the records say that patients will get better care because physicians have better access to the drug and medical history of the patients. They also say it will cut down costs. There are some concerns over privacy in using the digitized systems.
CRISP was formed as a not-for-profit collaborative in 2009 by Erickson Living, Johns Hopkins Medicine, MedStar Health, and the University of Maryland. CRISP received a federal grant of $6.4 million in 2010 to help electronically connect at least 1,000 healthcare providers.
4 comments:
Erickson Living is a wonderful retirement community with all the health resources needed for the older generation. What a great group that created this. It is much needed with all the HIPPA restraints. I know a few very good doctor's that chose to retire because of the restraints. Hopefully this will make things easier and more economical to operate their offices.
EMR is great! The transition from paper charts to EMR= TERRIBLE! Esp when you have over 4,000 patients! But in the end it will be well worth it!
everyone should just have an implanted chip that can be scanned
the transition of any system is a hair pulling, trying event. The end result is usually much better except for the employees that do not want change to happen.
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