Electronic Health Records

The American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) has many goals, one of which is to modernize health care information technology (HIT) and implement a national electronic health information infrastructure. The Certification Commission of Health Information Technology (CCHIT) has developed certification criteria and has certified health information technology systems.  

Hospitals and physicians must implement electronic health records (EHR) to be part of the national infrastructure and be eligible for incentives. Providers will be paid for adoption of EHR technology only after demonstrating they are a “meaningful user” of “certified EHR technology.”

As a provider, your compliance can not only qualify you for the stimulus funding, but also strengthen your patient care processes and promote efficient care delivery. BKD IT Risk Services (ITRS) can help. We offer the following services.

EHR Readiness Assessment

Provides assistance developing an EHR gap analysis and defining related projects to achieve implementation goals. Includes the following:

• ARRA reimbursement analysis
• IT and infrastructure inventory
• EHR assessment
• Security assessment
• EHR project charter

Needs Assessment

Aids in assembling and evaluating system requirements for EHR technology solutions. 

• EHR market education
• Systems requirements document
• Work flow analysis and design
• Creation of Request for Information and/or Proposal to software vendors

System Selection

Provides assistance to identify and evaluate an EHR compliant HIT solution.

• Demonstration scorecards—basis for purchase decisions
• Agreement analysis
• Total cost of ownership—three-year estimates which include software, equipment and implementation fees

Project Management Assistance

Helps facilitate management of selected software vendor and internal resources.  Follows Project Management Institute standards and methodology and includes:

• Project team
• Project management plans
• Detail work plans
• Status reports
• Budgets

Financial Impact of Breaches

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI), BKD and 82 additional independent organizations helped create The Financial Impact of Breached Protected Health Information report. Learn more about this free report, which explores the potential repercussions of investing in security for protected health information.