Rather than requiring all eligible providers and hospitals fill out what is generally the same checklist for Meaningful Use, organizations which prove they are achieving outcomes far beyond the norm could qualify right off the bat, suggested National Coordinator for Healthcare IT David Blumenthal, M.D., at the October HIT Policy Committee meeting.
HealthSystemCIO's Anthony Guerra posted a brief report suggesting that maybe there will be different ways to meet the Meaningful Use (MU) criteria. Or maybe different criteria, I can't quite tell from his remarks.
Just what every family practitioner needs right now -- more uncertainty about HITECH! It's not surprising that a wait-and-see approach may be the path of the vast majority in the 2011 first round of MU.
We at Cielo are hard at work on activities leading to MU certification, but we are working hardest on meeting a higher standard, Meaningful Usability.
A primary care provider may find that their newfangled IT system gets in the way of delivering quality care at the same time they are purportedly documenting it. That may be Meaningful Use by HITECH standards, but it's not Meaningful Usability. We are on track to deliver a system that improves the quality of the patient encounter in addition to documenting the improvement for HITCH and other P4P/P4R purposes.
Comments