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Interoperability
As David Blumenthal, MD, sees it, Stage 2 is where the rubber meets the road for the Meaningful Use EHR Incentive Program -- the government's grand scheme to drag the American healthcare system, kicking and screaming, into the 21st Century. But, is it proving to be just too much for most providers?
It will either be a passing breeze or the early rumblings of a storm to come. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' revealed the ostensibly shockingly low percentage of hospitals and eligible providers to attest to Stage 2 thus far and, in so doing, insisted that it's "early" and "dangerous" to draw conclusions.
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is adding momentum and new capabilities to its interoperability and population health initiatives.
On paper, it sounds easy. Eligible hospitals that refer patients to another care setting must electronically transmit "a summary of care record for more than 10 percent of such transitions and referrals." One hospital's experience shows it's harder than it might look.
CMS and ONC revealed the latest statistics on Tuesday morning, showing that 1 percent of eligible providers and 3 percent of eligible hospitals have attested to Stage 2 to date.
The EHR Association, with its nearly 40 EHR vendor members, largely supports the proposals for regulation of health IT put forth in a draft report from the Food and Drug Administration and other agencies, according to a July 7 letter to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, MD.
Darrel Whitmill, RN, manager of physician informatics and meaningful use at Cumberland Medical Center in Crossville, Tenn., wanted to beat the rush to Stage 2 meaningful use attestation, and he did.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has awarded a three-year, $162 million contract for upgrades to its VistA electronic health record. The announcement comes just as government officials assert in a news release Thursday that the multi-billion dollar acquisition to modernize the Department of Defense electronic health record is on track.
CommonWell Health Alliance, the IT trade association working to drive data liquidity among its members, has signed on two new vendors -- branching into post-acute care and making a pivot toward Apple users.
Anne Arundel Medical Center has been expanding in recent years, and as part of the challenge of optimizing 49 ambulatory practices as part of its network, the health system has had to integrate IT systems -- including the Epic EHRs used at hospitals and the cloud-based athenahealth technology at many of the practices.
