Meaningful Use

The federal government could do a better job helping to transform the nation's healthcare system, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, said at a Capitol Hill press conference Sept. 18. The conference was part of the HIMSS HIT Policy Summit held during National Health IT Week.

Approximately 68 percent of hospitals have purchased technology from a software vendor that has been certified to the 2014 Edition certification criteria, according to data collected through June 2013 in the HIMSS Analytics Database. Other HIMSS research also support the findings.

The Scorecard provides the first state-by-state comparison of the healthcare experiences of the 39 percent of Americans with incomes less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level, or $47,000 a year for a family of four and $23,000 for an individual.

As patient engagement grows, a new survey indicates that a growing number of U.S. consumers would be willing to switch doctors to gain online access to their own electronic medical records. Doctors, though, are not as eager to make the change.

UnitedHealth Group has voluntarily recalled its OptumInsight emergency department electronic health record software after a glitch resulted in physician notes failing to appear in the records.

What I find stifling is the pace at which meaningful use is proceeding. When you put an entire industry under the MU pressure cooker, the need to meet federal mandates overwhelms anything else.

Meaningful use Stage 2 of the electronic health record incentive program is definitely tougher, and some elements of CPOE could catch providers off guard, says Laura Kreofsky, principal advisor at Impact Advisors.

Much of the challenge nationally for bringing healthcare into the digital age, says outgoing ONC chief Farzad Mostashari, will be "getting to a common base of capabilities around the country, so that these providers...have some common assumption of what the capabilities of the systems will be around interoperability."

Arguing that IT offers the opportunity to help "every American" lead a full and healthy life, the Consumer Partnership for eHealth, a coalition of more than 50 consumer, patient and labor organizations, has published an action plan designed to ensure that disparities of care are a critical focus of Stage 3 meaningful use.

As the federally-funded Beacon Community Program draws to a close, project leaders look back on their struggles and accomplishments -- and focus on what's ahead.