| According to a research conducted by CSC (Computer Sciences Corp.), less than 6% of healthcare providers have the capacity to qualify for first stage criteria of meaningful use recommendations. Report has further highlighted 10 major obstacles for healthcare professionals in meeting meaningful use: |
|
| 1. Capturing and Recording Data |
|
|
Collecting and entering data in structured format is number one hurdle in fulfilling meaningful use criteria. Its collection and recording of data in such a way that it can be sorted and selected for reporting.
|
|
 |
| 2. Achieving Workflow Efficiency |
|
|
Workflow of a healthcare practice often needs to be revised to accommodate electronic medical records. This may affect the practice for some time as other activities of patient care continue while workflow is being modified.
|
|
|
|
| 3. Driving Provider Involvement in EHR Adoption |
|
| You need to manage the involvement of your EHR vendor as the primary users of the EHR, which is you and your staff, also should have a say in what’s selected in an EHR system and what isn’t. |
|
| 4. CPOE (Computer-based Provider Order Entry) |
|
| Almost 80% of the orders, including prescriptions, tests and referrals will need to be entered electronically in ambulatory settings. |
|
| 5. Moving to Electronic Prescribing |
|
| Electronic Prescribing is mandatory to fulfill meaningful use recommendations. So, move your prescriptions system to electronic prescribing as soon as possible. |
|
| 6. Ensuring Clinical Decision Support |
|
| You need to add efficient clinical decision support system. It’s even more important in hospitals and multi specialty practices where the clinical requirements of a Cardiologist may be different than those of a Dermatologist. |
|
| 7. Implementing Patient Portal or PHR Network |
|
| You need to create a healthcare Information exchange portal or network for patients. So you need to make sure if your EMR vendor offers such services or not. |
|
| 8. Formulating Strategy for PHR Data Exchange |
|
| Once you have a working health information exchange network in place, you need to formulate a strategy on how the data should be shared with other hospitals and practices. |
|
| 9. Ensuring Privacy and Security |
|
| This one is vital. You need to make sure that proper privacy and security checks have been implemented in the system. You need to have a new mindset and new strategy to shift your attention from paper based records to electronic health records, complying with HIPAA standards. |
|
| 10. Ensuring EHR Quality Assurance |
|
| You will need to ensure and report the quality assurance measures of EHR to Medicare and Medicaid. |
|
| via InformationWeek |
|