Pay-for-Performance Effort Boosts Health IT in Bay Area

Fifty-seven percent of California physicians participating in the first year of the Silicon Valley Pay-for-Performance Consortium reported creating patient scheduling and appointment reminder systems, according to the consortium's year-end report released on Wednesday, Healthcare IT News reports.

The consortium is focused on improving the quality of health care through wider use of health information technology.

The report found that of the participating physicians:

• 43% began accepting same-day appointments and using data-mining technologies to enhance patient information management;
• 28% established electronic health records, disease registries, provider reminder systems and post-hospital follow-up systems;
• 28% reported increased use of electronic systems for prescribing and for lab and radiology results;
• 28% started to use electronic messaging;
• 28% adopted an improved care management process;
• 28% increased the use of existing EHRS and created ways to better manage patient medication lists; and
• 14% adopted better systems to track referrals, made progress toward adopting an EHR system and streamlined workflows.

• Camino Medical Group;
• Kaiser Permanente;
• Palo Alto Medical Foundation;
• Stanford Hospital & Clinics;
• San Jose Medical Group;
• Santa Clara County Individual Practice Association; and
• Santa Cruz Medical Foundation.