With escalating costs and decreased reimbursements, it will be hard enough to come up with funds for electronic record implementation, let alone training for it.
The government thinks so too. In August, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services publicized that it was making $1.2 billion available to create regional health information technology centers. These centers are to support physicians and healthcare providers implement new systems.
Unfortunately, there are not enough experts in health IT to man the centers yet. This will change as Medsphere initiated its free Medsphere University this past March once demand for Open Vista became popular.
NITHealth is taking up the challenge as well. They have applied for a $4.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor for training centers where healthcare providers can come to take federally funded courses.
Lior Blik, the CEO of NITHealth and chief information officer of N.J. University Medical Center, stated that “I don’t think that doctors should have to pay [for training]. I think the government should pay for it, since they are making it a requirement.”
I am sure that physicians feel the same way.
