American College of Cardiology

EHR Toolkit

Beginning the process of choosing and implementing an electronic health record (EHR) for your cardiovascular practice requires a number of considerations that will influence your office’s day-to-day practice. Each office determines how best to handle these considerations, given their unique situation; there is no “one-size-fits-all” product or process. With so many issues to take into consideration, it is no wonder that most practices consider the process to be daunting. View an interview of Michael Mirro, M.D., F.A.C.C. and James E. Tcheng, M.D., F.A.C.C., co-chairs of the ACC Informatics Committee at ACC.10.

Benefits
However, the benefits of using health information technology (IT) are many. For example, a May 2008 Congressional Budget Office report found the potential benefits of health IT include reducing duplicative testing and medical errors; increasing the accuracy and completeness of patient data; and lowering administrative costs.

Funding
In addition to improving quality, the federal government will soon offer funding to practices that implement an EHR, up to 75 percent of their allowable Medicare Part B charges, subject to caps. The government also began to offer increased Medicare payments to practices that use e-prescribing technology under its e-Prescribing Incentive Program. The requirements for this program can be met by using an EHR with an e-prescribing functionality. The time has never been better to begin using an EHR in your practice.

Toolkit
Give the many benefits of health IT, the ACC highly encourages its members to adopt an EHR in their practice. To make the transition as smooth as possible, the ACC has assembled suggestions and documents to assist you in beginning the process of choosing and implementing an EHR.

• Getting Started
• Choosing an EHR
• Contract Negotiations
• Member Case Studies