title: The Health IT Regional Extension Center Program: evolution and lessons for health care transformation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Assess the Regional Extension Center (REC) program's progress toward its goal of supporting over 100,000 providers in small, rural, and underserved practices to achieve meaningful use (MU) of an electronic health record (EHR).
  
  
  METHODS
  Data collected January 2010 through June 2013 via monitoring and evaluation of the 4-year REC program.
  
  
  METHODS
  Descriptive study of 62 REC programs.
  
  
  METHODS
  Primary data collected from RECs were merged with nine other datasets, and descriptive statistics of progress by practice setting and penetration of targeted providers were calculated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  RECs recruited almost 134,000 primary care providers (PCPs), or 44 percent of the nation's PCPs; 86 percent of these were using an EHR with advanced functionality and almost half (48 percent) have demonstrated MU. Eighty-three percent of Federally Qualified Health Centers and 78 percent of the nation's Critical Access Hospitals were participating with an REC.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  RECs have made substantial progress in assisting PCPs with adoption and MU of EHRs. This infrastructure supports small practices, community health centers, and rural and public hospitals to use technology for care delivery transformation and improvement.
authors.affiliation: Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC.
authors.forename: Kimberly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lynch
authors.forename: Mat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kendall
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shanks
authors.forename: Ahmed
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Haque
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: Maggie G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Wanis
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Furukawa
authors.forename: Farzad
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mostashari
mesh_terms: D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends; D005260:Female; D018166:Health Care Reform / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D062527:Meaningful Use / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000639:trends; D008507:Medically Underserved Area; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000639:trends; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015397:Program Evaluation; D019035:Rural Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000639:trends; D058012:Small Business / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000639:trends; D014481:United States
keywords: Health information technology; electronic health records; meaningful use; practice transformation; primary care providers