Rural E-Health Gets $27.8 Million from Feds

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is using $27.8 in recovery funds to implement electronic health records and other health information technology initiatives in rural networks and large multi-site health centers, reports InformationWeek.

A report that HHS says demonstrates how health IT improves care in rural communities focuses on the Columbia Basin Health Association in Othello, Wash., which uses health IT to improve health care quality and promote care coordination, among other things. The department says it was one of the first health centers in the nation to completely make the switch from paper-based charts to e-health records, adding:

Since CBHA implemented its electronic health record system, the community health center has consistently ranked above the 95th percentile nationally in total medical and dental team productivity.