Checkout the first drchrono commercial when you have time!
This is part of the vision of what our company is about, creating a new type of healthcare that is on the go for physicians:
In order to get to ‘Meaningful Use’, we need to first get Provider’s to use an EHR to even hope to reach the level of obtaining meaningful use. Financial barriers are another reason why adoption is difficult to attain.
However, I believe that Provider’s do want to do the “right thing”, which is EHR use. I also believe that most Provider’s understand the utility of EHR’s and what progress it can bring to the healthcare field, but the problem lie’s mostly in human nature, that is ‘change’. Change takes work, energy, and time. We all get used to doing things a certain way without much thought. This makes our lives easier. It’s like creating our own thought process workflow routines/standards. Why should we break what is not broken? Is the incentive to change enough for Provider’s to modify what they have learned through exprience works for them?
The question then becomes how do we minimize the change required? We need to create a system that is adaptable to the practice, not the other way around. EHR’s need to be as transparent as possible. Provider’s just want to interact with the information that will allow them to get their work accomplished as fast, easily, efficiently, and effectively as possible. If this is accomplished, I believe that the financial barriers will be a secondary, albeit very important, concern.
As an example, my spouse can probably be classified as the ‘typical user’. She uses computer’s only because she has to. If it makes her life easier, she’ll use it, otherwise forget it. She views technology as a means to an end.
I, on the other hand, have always liked computers. I could be classified as a technophile. I am in charge of updating our home computer’s. Early on in my marriage, I would update my wife’s computer whenever it worked for me. Furthermore, sometimes there were also interface changes which I thought were ‘cool’. However, I sooned learned, after many demerits, that my spouse did not feel the same way. She wanted things done when she was not affected. She also wanted updates not to interfere with the interface that she was accustomed to.
This example demonstrates my point. Provider’s, and the public at large, are mostly like my spouse. They just want to use computer’s as tools to get their jobs done as quickly and efficiently as possible. They don’t want the computer to become another ‘job’ to figure out just to get what they want done. They just want it to be like an appliance that they use only when they need it. And the sooner they get their jobs done, the sooner they can get on with ‘living their lives’.
Yes, the drchrono team has received some android based devices, so we be looking into porting our platform over to our android enabled physicians.
Below are some of the devices we plan on testing on.
Here DrChrono.com University will discuss the specific Meaningful Use Criteria as it applies to both the Core Set and the Menu Set. The Core Set comprises 15 required criteria, and the Menu Set represents a menu of 10 criteria of which any 5 the physician may choose. Demonstrating meaningful use of at least 5 of these criteria in the Menu Set is compulsory. The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology has released its Initial Set of Standards, Implementation Specifications, and Certification Criteria for Electronic Health Record Technology. This program will assure the availability of certified EHR technology prior to the date on which health care providers seeking the incentive payments would begin to report demonstrable meaningful use of certified EHR technology. It is expected that the ONC will publish on their website a list of EHR technologies that meet the meaningful use criteria sometime this fall.
Here are the Stage 1 criteria Core Set for Eligible Professionals. The Menu Set will be found in DrChrono.com University’s next blog post.
CORE SET
The criteria are numbered, with the criteria themselves followed by a bulleted explanation of the measures that will be used to test the criteria.
1. Use Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) for medication orders directly entered by any licensed health care professional who can enter orders into the medical record per state, local, and professional guidelines
2. Implement drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction checks
3. Generate and transmit permissible prescriptions electronically (eRx)
4. Record demographics including preferred language, gender, ethnicity, race, and date of birth
5. Maintain up-to-date problem list of current and active diagnoses
6. Maintain active medication list
7. Maintain active medication allergy list
8. Record and chart changes in vital signs including height, weight, blood pressure, BMI, and growth charts for children 2-20 years
9. Record smoking status for patients 13 years and older
10. Implement one clinical decision support rule relevant to specialty or high clinical priority along with the ability to track compliance of that rule
11. Report ambulatory clinical quality measures to CMS or the States
12. Provide patients with an electronic copy of their health information (including diagnostic test results, problem list, medication lists, medication allergies), upon request
13. Provide clinical summaries for patients for each office visit
14. Capability to exchange key clinical information (for example, problem list, medication list, medication allergies, diagnostic test results), among providers of care and patient authorized entities electronically
15. Protect electronic health information created or maintained by the certified EHR technology through the implementation of appropriate technical capabilities
The ONC is currently in the process of receiving applications to approve of temporary certification organizations, and they plan to compile a list of certified EHR technologies so that physicians can begin the process of shopping for their new EHR. This list is expected to be available this fall.
DrChrono.com, and its iPad EHR platform are guaranteed to meet Meaningful Use Criteria.
It is the purpose of DrChrono.com University to keep you up to date with the latest information revolving around Meaningful Use so that all clinicians who utilize DrChrono.com’s iPad EHR will smoothly transition to a better, brighter, and patient-centered EHR system that will notably enhance the lives of practicioners and patients alike. The information posted on this blog is applicable only to Eligible Professionals, not Eligible Hospitals or Critical Access Hospitals. Stay tuned for weekly to biweekly updates.
At the advent of medicine, illness was attributed to witchcraft, demons, the stars, the planets, or the will of the gods. These days, we are soon to find ourselves, as physicians, under the will of the EHR. It is clear that the Electronic Health Record (EHR) is a revolutionary tool that will, and already has, transformed medicine into a more efficient, safer, and streamlined technology that far surpasses our witchcraft days. The EHR will inevitably improve caregivers’ decisions and the outcomes of patient care.
Last year Congress and the Obama administration passed The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH). This act authorized the use of financial incentives to health care providers who use certified EHR’s. A provider can benefit from $44,000 through Medicare, and $63,750 through Medicaid if they demonstrate that they meaningfully use their certified EHR. These funds will be supplied by the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs. Additionally, the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) is currently accepting and reviewing applications from organizations who are interested in conducting the certification process for EHR’s.
The information below is specific to eligible professionals, not eligible hospitals or critical access hospitals. As with any big change in life, this will be a transition, and likely a slow one. There will be at least 3 stages, and Stage 1 has been outlined clearly.
There exist 15 criteria in the “Core Set” which are essential, and that must be present in an EHR to meet meaningful use criteria. Furthermore, there is a “Menu Set” of 10 criteria, of which a clinician must meet at least 5 of these to garner the illustrious title of a “certified EHR” user. These sets and the specific criteria will be reviewed in my next blog.
DrChrono.com issued a press release earlier this month guaranteeing that all meaningful use criteria will be met.
It is the purpose of DrChrono.com University to keep you up to date with the latest information revolving around Meaningful Use so that all clinicians who utilize DrChrono.com’s iPad EHR will smoothly transition to a better, brighter, and patient-centered EHR system that will notably enhance the lives of practitioners and patients alike. Stay tuned for weekly to biweekly updates.
