David Blumenthal, MD
Every year, the HIMSS annual conference has provided a milestone on our journey toward a future of HIT-assisted healthcare. Every year we’ve seen progress. Yet past years have been marked by the stubborn gap between the potential we perceive for HIT-assisted care and a sluggish rate of adoption among providers.
On our FAQ page, we posted a revised Question and Answer regarding an issue that has recently caused confusion in our meaningful use regulations: namely, the flexibility that providers have to defer performance on some Stage 1 meaningful use objectives; and how that squares with the requirement that providers must nonetheless possess fully-certified EHR systems.
Two landmark reports by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) changed Americans’ perception of their health care system and launched today’s drive to improve the quality and safety of medical care in America. The reports were To Err Is Human, published in 1999, and Crossing the Quality Chasm, released in 2001.
Health IT is a team effort. The whole point is to increase communication and coordination among the different players in the health care system. You just can’t go it alone in this field.
Last week, we took great steps forward in bringing America’s health records into the 21st century. Widespread and meaningful use of fully functional electronic health record systems combined with a robust infrastructure for broad-based health information exchange can improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of health care for all Americans.
Introducing change in healthcare is never easy. Historically, adopting our most fundamental medical technologies, from the stethoscope to the x-ray, were met with significant doubt and opposition. So it comes as no surprise that in the face of change as transformational as the adoption of health IT - even though it carries the promise of vastly improving the nation's healthcare - some hospitals and providers push back.
Across the country, in practices large and small, urban and rural, general and specialized, health care providers are beginning their journey towards the meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs).
Across the nation, in communities large and small, health information technology innovators are boldly leading the way toward the adoption and meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs).
As I write, physicians throughout the United States are deciding whether to become meaningful users of electronic health records by 2011 when Medicare and Medicaid start making extra payments to meaningful users. For some the decision may be pretty simple.
I know that health care providers are concerned about implementing new health information technology and finding professionals who can operate and maintain such systems. I know many clinicians are unsure how they will develop or strengthen their skill set to incorporate using health IT efficiently and effectively without jeopardizing their communication with patients during a clinical visit.