Category: EHR

Meaningful Use to the Maximum: Keeping the Focus on the Patient By Gary Hamilton Across the country, healthcare organizations are evaluating their ability to meet the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Meaningful Use (MU) requirements. Data recently released by CMS revealed that more than 23,000 family physicians became first-time “meaningful users” last year,…

Vendors slowly but surely are moving to 2014 certification criteria needed for Stage 2 of Meaningful Use, according to a recent blog post published by officials at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. read more Source: Two of three Stage 1 attesters have 2014 edition certified products available

This week has been the annual user group for Epic EHR users, otherwise known as Epic UGM. @VinceKuraitis aptly noted that the Epic user conference had 15k attendees and yet it only produced 188 tweets the first day of the conference. I’m not sure if this is a reflection of Epic users view of social…

It seems fitting that this week’s 2013 Consumer Health IT Summit, designed to “equip and empower patients to better manage their health in the digital age,” is being held on the eve of HIPAA’s Sept. 23, 2013, compliance deadline, which ushers in increased privacy and security requirements. I fear, though, that patients may be receiving…

Patient engagement is a major component of Stage 2 of the Meaningful Use program, but patient portal vendors vary in their ability to meet the requirements, according to a new study released Sept. 17 by Orem, Utah-based KLAS Research. read more Source: Study: Not all portal vendors adequately support Meaningful Use Stage 2

Researchers have recently concluded that physicians who use electronic medical records (EMRs) with a moderate number of functions are more stressed and have lower job satisfaction than those whose EMRs don’t have that many functions. Researchers have recently concluded that physicians who use electronic medical records (EMRs) with a moderate number of functions are more…

The different business models for health information exchange governance are taking shape, and make “trust” a priority, according to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT’s latest update on its continuing efforts to support HIE. read more Source: ONC: HIE governance framework puts emphasis on trust

MEDSEEK announced today that the MEDSEEK Empower enterprise patient portal is compliant with the ONC 2014 Edition criteria and was certified as an EHR Module on September 4, 2013 by the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT®), an ONC-ACB, in accordance with the applicable hospital and eligible provider certification criteria adopted by the Secretary…

Cleveland Clinic has put out a really amazing video looking at Empathy: Exploring Human Connection. The video asks the question: “What if you could see people’s thoughts, feelings?” What an incredible concept and so beautifully displayed in this video. Take a minute to sit back and ponder this video. Don’t be afraid to shed a…

Meaningful use Stage 2 requirements are accelerating EMR-specific patient portal adoption at an increasing rate. The latest KLAS report, entitled Patient Portals 2013: On Track for Meaningful Use?, finds that this increase is having a negative effect on best-of-breed vendors, as providers report that third-party solutions are not as well equipped as EMR offerings for…