Electronic Health Record

A digital system for storing, managing, and sharing patient clinical information including diagnoses, medications, treatment history, immunizations, allergies, and test results. Certified EHR Technology (CEHRT) must meet federal interoperability standards set by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC). An estimated 10–20% of rural behavioral health providers and 5–10% of primary care providers in Oklahoma lack EHR systems.

EHR adoption is a prerequisite for participation in value-based care arrangements, HIE connectivity, and most modern telehealth workflows. The federal government has invested over $35 billion in EHR adoption through the HITECH Act, yet rural and behavioral health providers remain significantly behind. The RHTP's EHR Expansion initiative ($5.5 million) addresses this gap by subsidizing low-cost certified EHR access for unconnected rural providers in exchange for mandatory HIE participation. This creates the data infrastructure that makes telehealth — including Portal-based visits — clinically meaningful rather than isolated encounters disconnected from the patient's broader health record.