Meaningful Use

Suffice to say, when John Glaser speaks, the healthcare industry should listen. Even as Glaser moves from the healthcare provider and policy areas of the industry to the vendor side, he remains a respected authority on healthcare IT.

Many hospitals and physician offices are beginning to embark on the journey to implement and derive meaningful use out of EHRs. The Beacon communities will demonstrate how health IT can improve clinical outcomes, drive efficiencies and increase patient safety. Early adopters of EMRs and EHRs will also serve as role models in terms of where to find value and ROI. There has to be a business case for any IT investment, and finding multiple business cases for EHRs will only increase adoption.

For 90 percent of hospital executives - including CIOs and CEOs - achieving meaningful use of electronic health records is a top priority for 2010 and 2011, according to a survey from Falls Church, Va.-based consulting firm CSC.

GE Healthcare IT has announced the availability of its meaningful use-ready software release for Centricity Enterprise – the integrated cross-continuum clinical, financial and administrative software solution for hospitals.

An alliance that claims more than 2,300 community-based hospitals as members is pressing Congress for a legislative fix to the final rule on meaningful use to ensure that every hospital receives its fair share of incentive payments under the HITECH Act.

Even hospitals and physician groups need to market their facilities and services, but when it involves gleaning marketing information from patient data in EHRs, well, it’s not so simple.

A physician from a small general medical practice in Saugerties, N.Y., is set to testify about his use of healthcare IT before the House Committee on Ways and Means, Subcommittee on Health Tuesday.

Health IT professionals say EHRs are their top priority, according to a survey by Embarcadero Technologies.

New York State may be in the middle of a budget crisis, not unlike most of the states in the union, but legislators there understand the importance of funding health IT.

Incoming reaction and comments to the final meaningful use criteria have so far been fairly positive. I don't know if the organizations that are calling for changes are resigned to the fact that the rule making for stage 1 is final and want their comments to be taken into consideration when the stage 2 requirements are being discussed.