In 2007, THINC began an ambitious project to implement 1,000 electronic health records (EHRs) in the Hudson Valley.  Funded by a $5 million HEAL 1 grant from New York State Department of Health, the initiative implemented more than 600 EHRs as of August 2010 and put to work $3.7 million of the grant funds.  As of October 2011,  the EHR adoption rate in the Hudson Valley is estimated to be 67% with THINC’s HEAL 1 EHR initiative being directly responsible for approximately one-third of those EHR implementations.  For the HEAL 1 EHR program, THINC selected MedAllies as the EHR implementation agent and the project supports implementation of the eClinicalWorks EHR platform.  MedAllies implementation of eClinicalWorks in the Hudson Valley is distinguished by:

• Zero percent de-install rate;
  
• four times as many training hours as a typical EHR implementation;
  
• closed loop lab orders and results delivery from the EHR; and
  
• local support for eprescribing and ongoing help desk needs.
  

To further support EHR adoption, THINC also serves as a local agent for the Federal Regional Extension Center (REC) program run by the New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC).  As a local REC agent, THINC offers guidance and information to support primary care providers’ efforts to adopt EHRs and then connects providers with a reputable implementation vendor vetted and approved by NYeC.  This implementation vendor provides intensive training and support services, largely underwritten by the REC grant, to ensure the primary care provider meets the meaningful use standard set by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.