HIT Tool Kit Targets Rural Providers

It's no secret that, in general, rural healthcare providers lag behind their counterparts in urban and non-rural areas when it comes to the implementation of electronic medical records and other healthcare information technology.

The Office of the National Coordinator recently announced that only 9% of critical access hospitals had attested to meaningful use of EHR in 2011, compared with 16% of hospitals in non-rural settings. Frankly, neither statistic is worth bragging about. But the lagging achievement in critical-access hospitals points to some unique challenges that rural healthcare providers face.

Those challenges include a lack of access to capital funding, finding qualified staff and training, finding project partners, and surmounting the byzantine federal bureaucracy.

With that in mind, the Rural Assistance Center and the National Rural Health Resource Center have launched an online HIT toolkit for rural healthcare providers.

"It's freely available. All you have to do is go on line. The kit was designed to help rural providers navigate the federal resources that are available," Kristine Sande, program director at the Rural Assistance Center, told  HealthLeaders Media. 

"The federal government really is putting out a lot of resources related to HIT,  but they are from multiple departments and agencies and bureaus and it can be really confusing to figure out where to go different information," Sande says.

"So, we are just trying to help find the resources, understand which agency does what related to HIT, and provide them with some resources related to things like planning and implementation that can help them get their HIT systems up and running and meet the meaningful use standards."

Sande says the tool kit will allow rural providers to:

• Address challenges to find funding
• Support community college training programs
• Stay current on legislation affecting EHRs
• Leverage federal resources for projects

The toolkit can guide rural providers in the planning, setup, implementation and operation of an HIT infrastructure. Providers may also find nearby training programs, funding support and management expertise. Those resources are divided into categories for easy access, Sande says.

Sally Buck, associate director of the National Rural Health Resource Center, says only about 70% of rural healthcare providers are now being served by the regional extension centers that are funded by the Office of the National Coordinator. Some of the remaining 30% of rural providers are fending for themselves. "It is taking longer for critical access hospitals and rural providers," she says.

Sande says the Rural Assistance Center and the federal government want to hear from providers who use the tool kit, which is now considered a pilot project. "We really want feedback to see if this resource is helpful to people and what would be useful to be added to the Web site tool kit to make it even better to meet the needs of rural providers," she says.

While providing a tool kit for rural providers likely will not solve the lagging attestation rates for meaningful use, it is at least an acknowledgement from the federal government that rural providers face unique challenges implementing EHRs. In that respect, this is an important step.