Case study: Maryland clinics share EMR

In many cases, it's still the deep-pocketed providers that are rolling out EMR technology. But a group of Maryland clinics are bucking this trend, counting themselves among the few that share an integrated clinical, registration, scheduling and billing system. A group of eight clinics offering care to the underserved participate in the network, run by the Community Health Integrated Partnership (CHIP), sister organization to the Maryland Community Health System health plan. CHIP's efforts include a $2.9 million drive to computerize the clinics' medical records; CHIP spends $800,000 per year to run the administrative systems. CHIP has been working to centralize administrative functions since 1996, and has managed to convince participants to agree on system specs, key features and a single software vendor. With members generating 86,000 consultations per year, digitizing records should prove to be quite an effort, but execs seem determined to make it happen. Ultimately, the group hopes to take what it learns and share its knowledge with providers throughout the state's Medicaid program.

To learn more about the project:
- read this piece from The Examiner

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