In an effort to improve the quality of health care in its hospitals, the North Shore-LIJ Health System will be subsidizing up to 85 percent of the cost of installing and maintaining an Electronic Health Records (EHR) system.
This fall, the North Shore-LIJ EHR system, run by Allscripts, will use automated health care guides designed to prevent drug mistakes, prevent illness, and improve the quality of clinical practice.
The system would be used in the offices of more than 7,000 physicians affiliated with the North Shore-LIJ Health System. These physicians will receive up to $40,000 in subsidies over the next five years.
The $400 million project hopes to improve health care quality throughout the New York metropolitan area by applying in and outpatient records in all of the North Shore-LIJ medical offices, including 13 of its hospitals. The program is the largest in the New York metro area and one of the largest across the country.
In addition to every physician receiving up to $40,000 over the next five years, each will receive either 50 or 85 percent in subsidies of the monthly operational expenses and start-up costs. Each physician may also be able to receive up to $44,000 from Medicare incentives over the course of the next five years from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which was put into effect by the U.S. Congress in February.
The actual electronic health record system will have many benefits to a physician’s practice. One of the features is the planning of a long-term strategy for a patient. When a doctor diagnoses a patient’s problem, the EHR system will then give strategies to deal with the patient based upon all recorded problems such as underlining diseases, prior illnesses, and basic medical procedures.
Another function included with the EHR system is the simple transferring of patient data from physician/clinic offices to hospitals or emergency rooms. North Shore-LIJ physicians or clinicians can easily send lab results, prior prescriptions, and other medical records to North Shore-LIJ hospitals and/or emergency rooms through the electronic health record system. “Physicians are committed to providing the best possible care for their patients, but to deliver, they need just the right information at just the right time,” said Glen Tullman, the CEO of Allscripts.
“Connecting providers to each other and to the latest information is the key to helping our health care system do a better job of managing chronic diseases, providing preventative care, increasing the quality of the care provided and removing waste.”
According to the North Shore-LIJ chief information officer John Bosco, the EHR system should be functional by November. “We are very excited about using these technologies to enable sharing of patient information across our provider network and facilities, and provide appropriate decision support tools,” said Bosco.
In addition to adding the EHR system, the North Shore-LIJ Health System is collaborating with Hofstra University on adding a medical school in the future.
