An electronic medical records initiative will link more than 100 independent physicians affiliated with Mountain View, Calif.-based El Camino Hospital.

New Jersey-based ITelagen will provide El Camino with information technology and EMR support and services as the non-profit hospital implements EMR systems and solutions that are designed for smaller medical practices.

Hospital officials spearheaded the program in an effort to support independent physicians who typically can't afford the costs associated with EMR systems implementation.

Physicians affiliated with El Camino Hospital have formed a non-profit organization called Independent Physicians of El Camino Hospital (IPECH). IPECH will oversee the multimillion-dollar technology project through a service agreement with the hospital and manage the maximum subsidy allowable by Stark Law definition.

"ITelagen is pleased to lend its expertise in EMR systems support and IT services to this project at El Camino Hospital," said John O'Keefe, CEO of ITelagen. "Any time we can work with physicians to allow them to do what they do best - practice medicine - while we do what we do best - manage IT - it's a success story for everyone involved."

Statistics show that, on average, larger medical practices are implementing EMRs while smaller, often independent offices are frequently slow to adopt electronic record keeping.

"ITelagen is the clear leader in supporting medical electronic record-keeping implementations and the company's participation with our physicians is critical to the success of this program," said Kent Madsen, executive director, of IPECH. "El Camino's independent physicians stand only to benefit because the hospital is able to cover many of the costs associated with implementing EMRs at their offices and IPECH will retain IT support services from ITelagen to keep the EMR application running smoothly."

As an independent physician affiliated with this hospital, how will you benefit from this EMR initiative?

E-mail Associate Editor Molly Merrill at molly.merrill@medtechpublishing.com