I joined the RCHN Community Health Foundation in the summer of 2007 as Director of Technology Research. My role at the Foundation, as explained in my first column (9/07), was and continues to be to advance the organization’s technology vision, which centers on providing CHCs with affordable access to the technology infrastructure needed to provide …

As information technology becomes a more important part of how you provide care and run your health center’s business, the software that provides this capability also becomes a critical consideration.

Here’s the bottom line at the top: Labor-based productivity – that is, how much value is created per hour worked – is reasonably good in ambulatory health care.

Your lead biller is sitting in your office complaining that the electronic health records (EHR) system you just deployed that was guaranteed to be interoperable with your practice management and laboratory data systems isn’t – or at least isn’t easily interoperable.

Your billing supervisor says, “I hope the new EHR system we’re getting can trade data with our PM system.” You ask your EHR vendor and he says, “No problem, as long as your PM program can receive and generate HL7.” “Great,” you think. “What’s HL7?”