Lazy days of summer? Not quite
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| Mary Stevens, Editor |
The final rule for meaningful use still lurks, and the official word is we should expect it “any day.” The word from the field, as PwC found, is that 80 percent of hospital CIOs are concerned or very concerned they will not be able to demonstrate meaningful use of EHRs within the federally established deadline of 2015. The Leapfrog Group warned that CPOE with oversight could be harmful to patients’ health.
As the days flew by this week, the Health IT Standards Committee meeting convened with updates on the Nationwide Health Information Network interoperability framework and governance initiatives, as well as the Clinical Quality Workgroup’s re-tooling of 2011 meaningful use measures, the results of an environmental scan of leading healthcare systems and an NQF Fast Track project. The Enrollment Workgroup outlined its efforts to simplify the application process for PPACA enrollment.
The final rule for temporary certification drew CHIME comments: That certification will continue to evolve, that EHRs will need to be certified on an ongoing basis and that meaningful use criteria are likely to evolve over time. CHIME applauded the final rule’s provisions that call for authorized testing and certification bodies to provide remote testing of applications. The regulations state that an application need not be live at a customer’s site before it is tested, opening the door for testing of applications at vendors’ facilities.
As healthcare reform went to court in Virginia, Rhode Island's HIE was also under legal attack: Claiming that not enough has been done to protect patients’ privacy rights, the Rhode Island chapter of the ACLU filed suit Tuesday against the state’s Department of Health, challenging the rules the agency has adopted to implement a centralized database of patient healthcare records for its statewide HIE.
The news is decidedly more sunny for cloud computing and handheld devices in health IT, with forecasts of 27 percent annual growth for cloud systems, and 7 percent yearly expansion for handhelds. These numbers reflect healthcare’s increasing demand for scalable storage and anytime/anywhere information access. Another study found that RFID is still not used much in patient care, as survey respondents said they’re waiting for a better return on investment, or at least more budget dollars.
It sounds like fewer beach days all around.
Mary Stevens, editor
mstevens@trimedmedia.com