Posted by EHR Analyst on Sun, Jan 24, 2010 @ 09:08 PM
According to the 94,700-member American Academy of Family Physicians, while it "supports the goals" behind the proposed regulations, it believes that the regulations-as proposed-impose hurdles that will challenge small- and mid-sized practices' ability to qualify for the ARRA's health IT subsidies.
A chief concern is that collecting and reporting performance data could become an administrative burden, said Steven Waldren, director of the AAFP's Center for Health IT. He said that his recommendation for the final rules would be to "focus on meaningful use and not reporting on the meaningful use."
Physicians who meet the requirements could receive $44,000 to help pay for their purchase of an electronic health record system.
"They should not implement health IT to get the $44,000," Waldren said, they should do it to improve quality and efficiency and to move toward transforming their practices into a patient-centered medical home. "And, if you do that, you'll get $44,000. I don't think there's anything in there that physicians shouldn't be doing or striving for."
Waldren added that the AAFP is specifically encouraged by the proposed regulations' focus on care coordination, quality and patient-centered care, and he also said the AAFP supports the rules' promotion of using electronic prescribing; clinical decision support; analysis and reporting of evidence-based measures of quality and performance; and the sharing of health information and educational resources with patients.
For full details, read this article from Modern Healthcare.
Posted by EHR Analyst on Tue, Jan 12, 2010 @ 08:17 PM
A government survey indicates there was an 18.7% increase in the use of electronic health record software in physician offices to 41.5% in 2008 from 34% in 2007, but preliminary results for 2009 show only a slight increase up to 43.9%.
Doctors were asked, “Does this practice use electronic medical records or electronic health records (not including billing records)?” with options for answering “all electronic,” “part paper and part electronic,” “no” or “don't know.”
A “basic” system was defined as including patient demographic information, “patient problem lists,” clinical notes, orders for prescriptions and applications for viewing laboratory and imaging results.
A “fully functional' system, also included functions for medical histories and follow-ups, test ordering, electronic prescribing, drug interaction alerts, flagging “out of range” test levels, and reminders for guideline-based interventions.
Read full details here.
Posted by EHR Analyst on Mon, Jan 11, 2010 @ 09:25 AM
Eighty-five percent of healthcare providers believe their ambulatory
electronic medical record software will enable them to meet the 2011
meaningful use deadlines being considered by the federal government, according to a new report from KLAS.
However, many respondents say their technology lacks adequate reporting functionality.
Providers also noted a number of functional areas that are still lacking. Foremost among these were EMR reporting tools, patient access to medical records and the ability to share key clinical data.
"Reporting will obviously play a vital role in a provider's ability to meet the proposed meaningful use standards, yet more than 17 percent of providers say reporting is difficult or impossible with their current tools - and another 24 percent report needing specific technical expertise to manipulate the tools provided," said Mark Wagner, director of ambulatory research for KLAS and author of the report.
"To help their clients meet the substantial reporting requirements for meaningful use, many EMR vendors will need to increase the number and complexity of their canned reports, provide a stand-alone reporting application or add a third-party tool that can pull the required data," Wagner added.
For more details, read this article.