MA extension center enrolls 2,500 providers to deploy EHRs

The Massachusetts Regional Extension Center has signed up more than 2,500 primary care providers to assist them in becoming meaningful users of health IT, making it the leader of the nation's 62 centers in meeting its recruitment goal one year into the program. After enrolling physicians, the next milestone will be for the extension centers to help physicians go live with certified electronic health records with electronic prescribing and quality reporting capabilities, according to a May 25 announcement from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. The health IT experience and skills of the extension center staff were crucial to reaching its goal so quickly, said Bethany Gilboard, director of health technologies for the Massachusetts eHealth Institute, which become the extension center in April 2010.