Former President Bill Clinton, speaking at HIMSS13, said that medical practices need to embrace IT and let go of outmoded administrative systems that he likened to “horse and buggy systems.”
At the same time, the American College of Physicians (ACP) released a report stating that clinicians lowered their satisfaction and usability ratings for certified electronic health records (EHR) solutions since 2010. Healthcare IT News reported that ratings of “very dissatisfied” had increased 15 percent in the last three years.
The news comes at a time when medical organizations are scrambling to have their EHR systems up and running so that they don’t incur Medicare reimbursement penalties when the Affordable Care Act goes into full force in 2014.
According to the ACP, the decrease in satisfaction “highlight(s) the need for the Meaningful Use program and EHR manufacturers to focus on improving EHR features and usability.”
Some EHR implementation statistics look promising. The HIMSS annual CIO survey found that 66 percent of hospitals had already qualified for Meaningful Use Stage 1 and were well on their way to Meaningful Use Stage 2.
The question is: Are EHRs and Meaningful Use regulations really in need of an overhaul, or are a few organizations that are behind on implementation becoming a lot noisier?
Healthcare organizations are required to do more than just set up EHR capability. They must prove that their systems deliver “meaningful use.” According to the U.S. government, meaningful use means that EHRs must improve coordination and public health while engaging patients and their families.
They must also reduce disparities, improve quality, safety and efficiency and ensure that patient information remains both private and secure.
Hospitals and medical providers should have completed Stage 1 of Meaningful Use, which includes meeting objectives related to data capture and sharing, by the end of 2012. Stage 2, which involves advanced clinical processes such a more robust health information exchange, better incorporation of lab results into EHRs and e-prescription programs, must be complete by 2014.
In addition, EHRs should contain more patient-controlled data, and the data should be sharable across multiple practices.
Stage 3 requirements must be implemented by 2016 if healthcare organizations don’t want to face Medicare reimbursement penalties.
Edited by
Brooke Neuman
