GE's EHR gremlin may prohibit meaningful use attestation
 |
The Barrington, Ill.-based company recently became aware of inaccuracies with reports in certain tools that may affect customers who have attested or are currently planning to attest for meaningful use, according to a letter from Michael Friguletto, vice president and general manager of GE Healthcare IT.
"GE Healthcare is moving quickly to correct these inaccuracies, and we expect to have the affected reports fixed no later than the end of November,” Friguletto wrote.
The inaccuracies identified may affect the results obtained from the Crystal Reports or Medical Quality Improvement Consortium reporting tools for meaningful use, according to the letter, which noted that the inaccuracies affect some of the meaningful use reporting measures. However, the underlying clinical data and logic of the EMR system remain sound.
“If you have already attested in 2011, we recommend that you run the reports again for your particular attestation period after we provide the updates,” Friguletto wrote. “If your results are different from those used for attestation, you may need to evaluate if you have still cleared all applicable meaningful use thresholds for the original period or would meet the thresholds for all applicable measures (not only those that may have changed in the initial reporting period) for a later reporting period in 2011.”
He added that GE is working with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to identify what stakeholders may need to do if the data used to support attestation have changed. Eligible professionals may attest with 2011 data until Feb. 29, 2012, he added.
“If you have not yet attested and you use only GE Healthcare's reports for your meaningful use attestation, we recommend that you delay your attestation until the updated reports are released,” Friguletto concluded.
GE Healthcare additionally released a series of immediate steps needed to take on three specific measures for progress towards meaningful use that is available here.