Purdue hiring staff to help health-care providers switch to electronic records
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University's Healthcare Technical Assistance Program announced Monday (June 14) that it is hiring 50 professionals to help 2,200 Indiana primary-care doctors adopt electronic records that meet federal standards.
A $12 million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant is funding the work through Purdue's Indiana Health Information Technology Extension Center (I-HITEC). Purdue is one of as many as 60 nonprofit organizations nationwide receiving ARRA funding to develop regional centers to assist health professionals in adopting electronic health record technology and ensuring they meet meaningful-use metrics required by the federal government.
Some of the metrics include improving quality, safety, efficiency, care coordination, public health and health outcomes for groups of individuals, including the distribution of outcomes within groups; reducing health disparities; ensuring adequate privacy; and protecting personal health information.
Purdue's center will aid Indiana small practices of 10 or fewer health-care providers, community health centers, federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics statewide.
I-HITEC is seeking staff, which will be assigned to various roles within the center, to:
* Educate health-care providers and enroll them in the program.
* Build and manage relationships with the health-care providers.
* Evaluate software and hardware.
* Help providers adopt the technology and ensure they meet meaningful-use metrics required by the federal government.
The center's director, Monica Arrowsmith said, "Using the latest in health information technology helps health-care providers know more about their patients, which will improve the quality of care provided and reduce the risk of errors."
The center is about to begin assisting those health-care providers who have indicated an interest so far.
More information is available on the I-HITEC website at http://www.switch.purdue.edu
Writer: Jeanne Norberg, 765-494-2084, jnorberg@purdue.edu
Source: Monica Arrowsmith, marrowsmith@purdue.edu