The Gulf Coast Regional Extension Center (GCREC) is a program within the UTHealth School of Biomedical Informatics that provides health information technology (HIT) and care transformation services to medical practices in Southeastern Texas and the Rio Grande Valley. The GCREC region encompasses almost 11 million patients, comprising 44% of the Texas population. RECs were originally funded by the Office of the National Coordinator to promote the adoption, implementation, and meaningful use (MU) of electronic health records (EHRs) in the underserved, primary care provider settings. The GCREC has successfully helped over 2235 clinicians achieve their Meaningful Use goals and qualify for financial incentives. Currently, the GCREC has evolved to provide professional HIT consulting to clinicians and hospitals on a fee-for-service basis. The GCREC has a proven track record of working with Texas clinicians, FQHCs, and small hospitals to improve practice workflows, patient care, and patient safety through the optimized use of EHRs. Consultants provide project management assistance to enable practices to use the EHR to meet MU and Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) guidelines, as well as utilize quality measures both for regulatory reporting and to improve preventive care delivery. GCREC is working closely with providers to educate and align for preparation to attest to MIPS guidelines for the upcoming years.
Our consultants are backed by years of experience and training, including the following professional designations:
Susan Fenton, PhD, RHIA, FAHIMA ![]() Susan Fenton, PhD, RHIA, FAHIMA, joined UT Health School of Biomedical Informatics (SBMI) on June 1, 2013 as an assistant professor of biomedical informatics. She came to SBMI from Texas State University in San Marcos, where she was an assistant professor and co-director of the Institute for Health Information Technology. In August 2014, Dr. Fenton transitioned into the role of associate dean for academic affairs, taking over the management responsibilities for the Office of Academic Affairs and helping the school acquire health informatics and information management education accreditation from CAHIIM for the applied health informatics program. |
Jiajie Zhang, PhD
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