EHRs: The ramp-up continues
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| Mary Stevens, Editor |
The EHR news was voluminous this week, starting with the debut of a new EHR safety reporting system. The iHealth Alliance, a nonprofit group of medical society and professional liability carrier executives, collaborating with federal agencies and PDR Network, has launched EHRevent.org, which establishes a nationwide system for healthcare providers to report issues related to the implementation and use of EHRs using a standardized online format.
EHRevent.org will seek to create reports that medical societies, carriers and government agencies, such as the FDA, can use to educate providers on the potential challenges associated with EHR systems.
The graph on EHR adoption might not look like a hockey stick yet, but a growing group of providers are getting past these challenges: HIMSS Analytics reports that more than a third of surveyed providers—687 hospitals, according to preliminary data—have the ability to meet both core and menu Stage 1 requirements. Other results: Twenty-two percent of participating hospitals have the capability to achieve 10 or more of the required core measures in the Stage 1 requirements; 34 percent of respondents can achieve between five and nine of the core measures. Slightly more than 40 percent of providers indicated they have the capability to meet five or more of the menu items for meaningful use.
Regional Extension Centers are enlisting help from a variety of sources to get more providers to Stage 1 and beyond. This week, Tri-State Regional Extension Center, based in Cincinnati and operated by HealthBridge, selected athenahealth as a supported EHR partner. athenahealth’s EHR, athenaClinicals, will help doctors in the Tri-State region (Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana) meet EHR certification requirements for meaningful use and qualify for reimbursement funds.
Also, two Pennsylvania RECs, PA REACH East and PA REACH West, designated Greenway Medical Technologies’ PrimeSUITE EHR practice management and interoperability software as an EHR option for group purchasing. Collectively, both programs of PA REACH will provide outreach, education and onsite technical assistance to as many as 8,700 primary care physicians looking to implement and meaningfully use EHRs.
Closer to home, this week also kicks off our weekly roundup of certified EHRs. The ONC’s Certified Health IT Product List can be found here, and it’s getting longer. We’ll include the newest certified products so you don’t have to hunt for them.
Finally, the annual CMIO Compensation Survey is here. If you’re a CMIO/medical informatics leader in your organization, please take a few minutes and make your data count! All responses will be kept confidential and data are used for aggregation purposes only. Sweetening the deal, survey takers can enter to win one of five $50 Visa gift cards.
Mary Stevens
Editor of CMIO
mstevens@trimedmedia.com