Nashville's Healthcare Management Systems said today that two of its hospitals in Kentucky have been awarded incentive payments for using its electronic health record system. Rockcastle Regional Hospital received nearly $630,000 and Breckinridge Memorial Hospital received about $194,000 in stimulus funds made available under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for hospitals that meet "meaningful use" requirements for EHR systems.

“We’re extremely pleased to see these community hospitals moving forward successfully,” said Tom Stephenson, president and chief executive officer of HMS. “They are improving healthcare delivery and are among the first to receive the incentive payments that became available this year. HMS is proud to help Breckinridge and Rockcastle achieve adoption of these tools and qualify for stimulus funding.”

HMS currently serves more than 680 community hospitals and healthcare organizations nationwide.

Healthcare Management Systems' ambulatory electronic health record has received the necessary government certification to qualify its users for "meaingful use" — basically allowing the Nashville company's hospital customers to receive government reimbursement for purchasing the system.

“The first three months of 2011 have been productive ones for HMS with the ONC-ATCB certification of our inpatient EHR in January, EDIS in February and now Ambulatory EHR,” said Tom Stephenson, president and chief executive officer of HMS. “We’re pleased to offer community hospitals a full range of certified solutions that can help them deliver more effective and efficient patient care and to qualify for meaningful use funding under the ARRA.”

For more on meaningful use certification and the stimulus money for health care providers, click here.

Claire Bowen, VRH chief executive officer, said, “This upgrade of our information systems is a top priority for VRH as we continue to identify opportunities to improve care for our patients and community. We plan to become a flagship site for HMS in the New England region.”

• CIO of the Year — Gary Seay, Community Health Systems
• CTO of the Year — Eric Harrison, Community Health Systems
• CISO of the Year — Bill Dieringer, Ardent Health Services
• Innovator of the Year — Tim Smith, MyWerx
• IT Student of the Year — Matthew Lefavor, Belmont University
• Volunteer of the Year — John Kepley, teknetex
• Social Media/Blogger of the Year — Scott Gordon, Vaco Technology
• Software Programmer/Engineer of the Year — Nicholas Williams, PureSafety
• The Green Award — LetterLogic, Inc.
• Start-up Company of the Year — Taigan
• Lifetime Achievement — Tom Stephenson, HMS
• Technology Organization of the Year -- Ardent Health Services

• Katherine McElroy, Partner, C3 Consulting
• Kent Fourman, CIO, Permanent General
• Tom Stephenson, CEO, HMS
• John Kepley, CEO, Teknetex
• Todd Joseph, CIO, Comdata
• Will Weaver, Founder, Emma
• Tim Getsay, CIO, Vanderbilt University
• Bob Deckard, Regional VP, Comcast
• Michael Burcham, President, Entrepreneur Center, Ex-Officio
• Glenn Perdue, Managing Member, Kraft Analytics, Ex-Officio