HIMSS: GE voices MU concerns, highlights certified EHR systems
GE Healthcare highlighted its portfolio of health IT software and systems geared to help providers achieve MU, while elucidating the challenges that radiologists face in meeting MU criteria during HIMSS11 in Orlando, Fla., Feb. 20 to Feb. 24. The company shared that GE Centricity Enterprise version 6.9 was certified as a Complete EHR and highlighted Centricity Practice Solution 10, Centricity Patient Online and eHealth Community Desktop.
While touting its health IT portfolio, GE emphasized its concerns about stage 2 for radiologists. On Feb. 18, the company submitted its comments about stage 2 to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), said Mark J. Segal, PhD, vice president government and industry affairs for GE. “The criteria are primary care-focused. The challenge for radiologists, given their workflow, is to [leverage health IT to simultaneously] meet clinical needs and meaningful use criteria.”
In its comments to CMS, the company suggested:
The portfolio
Centricity Practice Solution 10 and Centricity Patient Online 12 enhance existing GE EMR systems and are designed to help customers achieve meaningful use, the company said. Centricity Practice Solution 10 incorporates embedded reports that providers can use to track their progress toward becoming meaningful users. This new version has attained 2011/2012 MU Stage 1 certification as a complete EHR. The system enables quality benchmarking and reporting for meaningful use and other incentive-driven reporting initiatives. GE expects the product to be generally available in the second calendar quarter of 2011.
Centricity Patient Online 12 patient portal technology creates a channel of communications that extends the provider workflow to the patient’s home and can help providers meet Stage 1. It includes the ability to give patients an electronic copy of their health information upon request, to provide electronic access to the patient’s health information (including lab results, problem list, medication lists and medication allergies) within four business days of the information being available to the provider, to provide clinical summaries for patients for each office visit and to offer patient-specific educational resources. Centricity Patient Online 12 is generally available today.
eHealth Community Desktop is an open standards framework for delivering clinical applications built on top of a healthcare community. Its foundation is a portal technology that provides clinicians and other providers a web-based way to view patient data available within a health information exchange (HIE). The technology allows multidisciplinary care team members, regardless if they use an EMR or not, to track their patients' care, leverage applications provided via the HIE and support care management, GE said.
Drummond Group certified Centricity Enterprise version 6.9 on Feb. 17. The 2011/2012 certification does not represent an endorsement of the certified EHR technology by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services nor does it guarantee the receipt of incentive payments, GE stated.
While touting its health IT portfolio, GE emphasized its concerns about stage 2 for radiologists. On Feb. 18, the company submitted its comments about stage 2 to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), said Mark J. Segal, PhD, vice president government and industry affairs for GE. “The criteria are primary care-focused. The challenge for radiologists, given their workflow, is to [leverage health IT to simultaneously] meet clinical needs and meaningful use criteria.”
In its comments to CMS, the company suggested:
- Tight timelines between the final rule and next implementation may be problematic;
- Stage 2 should build on Stage 1 workflows and processes;
- Health information exchange considerations should build on stage 1 capabilities;
- New measures should not be added except for specialties with a dearth of applicable measures;
- Measures should be designed for clear, automated reporting to minimize the reporting burden; and
- Decision support should be given serious consideration for Stage 3.
The portfolio
Centricity Practice Solution 10 and Centricity Patient Online 12 enhance existing GE EMR systems and are designed to help customers achieve meaningful use, the company said. Centricity Practice Solution 10 incorporates embedded reports that providers can use to track their progress toward becoming meaningful users. This new version has attained 2011/2012 MU Stage 1 certification as a complete EHR. The system enables quality benchmarking and reporting for meaningful use and other incentive-driven reporting initiatives. GE expects the product to be generally available in the second calendar quarter of 2011.
Centricity Patient Online 12 patient portal technology creates a channel of communications that extends the provider workflow to the patient’s home and can help providers meet Stage 1. It includes the ability to give patients an electronic copy of their health information upon request, to provide electronic access to the patient’s health information (including lab results, problem list, medication lists and medication allergies) within four business days of the information being available to the provider, to provide clinical summaries for patients for each office visit and to offer patient-specific educational resources. Centricity Patient Online 12 is generally available today.
eHealth Community Desktop is an open standards framework for delivering clinical applications built on top of a healthcare community. Its foundation is a portal technology that provides clinicians and other providers a web-based way to view patient data available within a health information exchange (HIE). The technology allows multidisciplinary care team members, regardless if they use an EMR or not, to track their patients' care, leverage applications provided via the HIE and support care management, GE said.
Drummond Group certified Centricity Enterprise version 6.9 on Feb. 17. The 2011/2012 certification does not represent an endorsement of the certified EHR technology by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services nor does it guarantee the receipt of incentive payments, GE stated.