The WCA’s customized electronic health record (Provided by NetHealth) has received full certification as a Complete EHR(Electronic Health Record) by the Drummond Group, as an ONC-ATCB approved testing entity. By meeting the 2011/2012 criteria, our Electronic Medical Record system supports the Stage One Meaningful Use measures required for eligible providers to qualify for funding under the HITECH Act.What does this mean for the WCA?This completes the last step necessary for our providers to participate in Medicare’s Electronic Health Record (EHR also referred to as an EMR, Electronic Medical Record) incentive program which will not only allow our providers the opportunity of receiving an overall incentive pay from Medicare of $48,400 over the next five years for participation in the incentive program, but it means that our providers are using HITECH certified medical record technology that will improve the quality of the wound care we deliver to our patients. We have been using this system as a paperless EMR for over ten years. In fact, WCA has built it’s approach and a substantial part of it’s success over the past decade based on using an electronic medical record. Our certified EHR has increased patient safety by reducing medical record errors, and has streamlined the coordination of our patient’s care by creating a patient health record that works symbiotically with external healthcare entities that have now joined the certified EHR approach.From the compliance viewpoint the use of the certified EHR simplifies the process of data collection for quality assurance audits. Accuracy of data collection is critical to providing a clear picture of the utilization and quality of patient care delivered. It will make it easier for physicians and other healthcare providers to accurately, legibly and comprehensively capture the patient’s clinical presentation, which will make it much easier for medical billers and coders to accurately capture the physician encounters for reimbursement. this approach also allows for easy trending, financial analysis, and great benchmarking capabilities.Good for the patient, good for the hospital, good for the doctor. I think that counts as win-win-win!