Seton Healthcare Family receives $18,000 check from CMS for Stage 1 meaningful use

eClinicalWorks®, a market leader in ambulatory clinical systems, today announced that providers associated with Austin, Texas, Seton Healthcare Family have each received an $18,000 check from the Centers of Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) after successfully attesting for meaningful use, the maximum amount allowed for 2011.

These incentives were established by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) to reward medical providers who successfully demonstrate meaningful use of an electronic health records (EHR) system in ways that improve the quality, safety and effectiveness of patient-centered care. Providers receive these incentives after successfully completing attestation for Stage 1 of meaningful use.

"We chose to pursue the meaningful use incentives early on because of the close ties that the quality improvement goals have with our own objectives," said Gerry Lewis, CIO of Seton. "Using eClinicalWorks has not only helped us successfully attest, but the system has also improved efficiencies and quality of care in our organization."

Helping its customers through the attestation process, eClinicalWorks provides eClinicalWorks Meaningful Use, Adoption and Quality (MAQ) Dashboards free of charge. To further meaningful use education, eClinicalWorks is conducting a series of RoadShows across the nation for medical providers, clinical staff and office administrators, with 30 shows already occurring and approximately 25 more planned in 2011. These are free interactive sessions on all 25 requirements of meaningful use and also demonstrate new features. There are also daily free Webinars educating customers on this topic. With the MAQ Dashboards, RoadShows, Webinars, newsletters, Meaningful Use Assessment and others, eClinicalWorks has developed tools and educational resources to aid providers in becoming meaningful users.

"eClinicalWorks focuses on providing a preventative-care oriented, comprehensive system that helps providers deliver a higher level of care," said Girish Kumar Navani, CEO and co-founder of eClinicalWorks. "We have been diligent in ensuring that not only our system meets all of the meaningful use criteria, but also that our customers are educated on the guidelines. eClinicalWorks MAQ Dashboards make it easy for doctors to attest. We are excited for Drs. Parthasarathy and Pruitt as well as all of our customers who have successfully attested."