Update on Regional Extension Centers (REC)

The 62 Regional Extension Centers (RECs) are located in 9 regional areas. This post is checking in on the West South Central region and its five states and eight centers.

Arkansas – HITArkansas
This REC is a division of the Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care (AFMC) and operates in collaboration with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. It serves the entire state of Arkansas. The first round of vendor selection is complete and the list includes 17 vendors. The event calendar is empty, providers that have signed a Provider Service Agreement can register online, and they have a newsletter that appears to be quarterly.

HITArkansas provides assistance to priority primary care physicians, which include family practice, general practice, internal medicine, obstetric/gynecology and pediatric physicians. Other specialty providers who are interested in working with HITArkansas are invited to complete a preliminary application and to contact them with questions and for pricing parameters.

Louisiana – Louisiana Health Information Technology (LHIT) Resource Center
Where does one begin with this one? The center is located in Baton Rouge and operated by the Louisiana Health Care Quality Forum. It does not have a unique URL for the REC and the REC tab on the navigation menu brings you to a page which informs you it is “coming soon”. The About page does explain the Tiers of service who is eligible, and that the center services the entire state of LA. The vendor/Partner page is also “coming soon”. If you would like more information on upcoming events or REC services just email them! Interesting way of marketing wouldn’t you say? I wonder if you actually get an email back? If you are a LA provider, take their survey.

Mississippi – Mississippi Center for Health Information Technology

Operated by Louisiana based EQ Health Solutions and working with local community stakeholders to encourage clinicians to move toward EHR adoption, this REC services the entire state of Mississippi. The Mississippi Medical News reported in August that the REC had signed up 450 providers which was more than the national expectations. Truly amazing when you see their web site and that is only if you can find it. Mississippi providers can register online here.

Oklahoma – Oklahoma Foundation for Medical Quality

The Oklahoma Foundation for Medical Quality (OFMQ), with support from a broad coalition of more than 30 Oklahoma professional organizations, has been designated as the Health IT Regional Extension Center for Oklahoma. The web site is pages on the OFMQ site. Physicians interested in the HIT services can fill out an Interest Form.

Check out their event calendar with an actual event on it. On February 18th, the Oklahoma State Medical Association will host EMR Update IV.

Texas – Texas RECs

Texas has four centers which have collaborated on a central landing page to navigate to each of the four regional center’s sites. The site shows the regional areas by map, a news blog (which needs some updated posts), and a collective RFQ process and vendor lists. And something most of us take for granted but has appeared to be lost on most of the RECs, they have a Facebook page!

CentrEast REC at A&M, College Station
Their vision is to partner with 1000 Primary Care Providers. My pick for one of the best web sites so far.

GCREC – Gulf Coast, Houston
The center began enrolling providers and their goal is to enroll 2,855 eligible primary health care providers in the south region of Texas in the first year and to ensure participants are using those systems meaningfully by 2012.

Dallas-Fort Worth NTREC, Irving
This center’s goal is to assist 1,498 physicians in reaching meaningful use by April 2012.

WTxHITREC – West Texas, Lubbock
Just getting their web site up they do not report the center’s assist goals but they do have a good site layout.

Other previously reviewed areas:
New England
Mid Atlantic
East North Central
West North Central
South Atlantic
East South Central

Next stop, West Mountain!

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