EHR: CIO’s Worried About Meeting “Meaningful Use” Requirements

Eighty percent of chief information officers surveyed by PricewaterhouseCoopers say they’re worried their hospitals won’t be able to meet whatever meaningful use criteria the government sets for electronic medical records systems.

Chief information officers at healthcare providers and insurance firms are worried that their organizations won’t be able to win so-called “meaningful use“ designation for electronic health records systems in time to take advantage of government subsidies, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

In a survey of 120 CIOs, the consulting firm found that 80 percent are “concerned with the ability to meet MU requirements within the specified time frame.”

“Without a set of final rules in place, lack of clarity around certain criteria and reporting requirements has left some CIOs at an impasse,” according to the report. “Fueling the concern are availability of skilled IT resources, infrastructure requirements, vendor readiness, and effecting behavioral change across the organization.”

The federal government is promising about $40,000 out of a $20 billion kitty to each physician practice, hospital or other healthcare provider that can prove “meaningful use” of an EMR system, but has yet to establish exactly what it means by meaningful use. More than a third of the CIOs surveyed said they’re also worried about software vendors’ ability to deliver systems that will meet the criteria, with 44 percent saying their HIT vendors aren’t ready.

“I think we all wonder if we’re going to be ready,” John McInally, CIO for MetroHealth System in Cleveland, told MedCity News. “I don’t know any of my colleagues anywhere that feel they’re completely ready for meaningful use.”

In order to be eligible for the federal handout, healthcare providers must use a certified EMR product and be able to demonstrate the ability to meet reporting requirements.

“The real test, though, will be the new quality reporting requirements that come with this meaningful use,” McInally said. “So it’s not enough to just have the information systems installed from certified vendors, but you also have to be able to produce reporting that demonstrates you’re using those systems to assure high-quality patient care.”

The PWC survey showed that healthcare providers that pull doctors, patients and insurers into the loop are more likely to be ready to apply for stimulus cash next year. But less than 20 percent of the CIOs surveyed said their employers are including patient input into their meaningful use initiatives. By contrast, 63 percent said their organizations are already working with physicians or will in the next six months.

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Health IT Funding To Create 50,000 Jobs

Federal dollars being pumped into grant programs to spur students to enter IT careers in the health care industry should help to create between 45,000 and 50,000 jobs over the next five years.

Speaking at the Health Information Technology (HIT) Conference here, Dr. David Blumenthal, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, said a portion of $2 billion in discretionary spending under Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) is being targeted at education and training for electronic health record implementation. A large part of the training is for people to staff 60 regional extension centers, which are public, private partnerships that will assist rural hospitals and physician practices with 10 or fewer doctors in rolling out electronic medical records (EMRs) and supporting technology.

“There’s a shortage of workers who can staff these regional extension centers and provide the kind of support physicians and hospitals need to become meaningful users” [of EMRs], Blumenthal said.

Without specifying an amount, Blumenthal said the ONC has already handed out funding to 70 community colleges or other universities to create programs for workforce training for health information technology.

The HIT conference, hosted by the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium, focused not only how to create jobs in health information technology, but how that technology can reduce health costs while improving quality of care.

A final version of the government’s Notice of Proposed Rule Making helps define what type of technology should be used and spells out how $36 billion in incentives from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 should be paid out. A physician in private practice can receive up to $44,000 for rolling out EMRs and showing “meaningful use” of that technology.

Hospitals could potentially received millions of dollars in reimbursement.Physicians and hospitals that don’t roll out the EMR technology and prove that they are making “meaningful use” of it by 2015 face penalties in the form of reduced Medicare reimbursements.

“Our real challenge is to redesign health care so that it’s patient-centric, safe, effective, high quality for all individuals and affordable,” Griswold said. “That redesigned healthcare system will use health information technology to achieve those goals. She cautioned that IT is not a silver bullet, and that products need to be not only well designed but tested and carefully implemented with patient input.

The main hurdles to adoption included the ability to aggregate medical data and organize it, how to share it without mature, robust information exchange networks, and the security of data once it is online. John Moore, a managing partner with Chilmark Research, said that while 80% of people use the Internet to search for health information, a recent study showed that only 7% actually use PHRs.

Over the next two years, 58% of small physician practices plan to roll our EMRs, according to a recent survey. EMRs will share patient information between health care providers, ensuring a patient’s treatment medical history, existing conditions and prescription medication warnings are made automatically available to a treating physician.

Over the next year, Blumenthal said his office will focus on finalizing “meaningful use” regulations, which should be published later this spring, and implementing the Beacon Community Grant program, which will use $220 million to build out health IT infrastructures and regional information exchange capabilities in 15 communities.

Blumenthal said so far 130 counties throughout the U.S. have applied for the grant money. The ONC will also focus on helping hospitals and other health facilities use the National Health Information Network (NHIN), which is a set of standards, services and policies that enable secure health information exchange over the Internet.

“This is a major change to one of the most complicated systems in our society. ” Patrick said.“But, in a world where more and more average citizens are banking, shopping and communicating in an increasingly electronic world, it’s time for the health care system to catch up.”

Patrick pointed to New Zealand as the ideal for EHRs. “In New Zealand, when you are born, you get an electronic medical record. And that record is available in any hospital, clinic, doctor’s office, or pharmacy anywhere in New Zealand for the rest of your life,” he said. “That’s where I want to be. I want that kind of seamlessness, that kind of simplicity, that kind of efficiency.”

Full Article: CIO.com
Post by: Beth Frazier, Asocia Healthcare

Fifty Eight Percent of US Physicians to Adopt EMRS

Fifty-eight percent of U.S. physicians who don’t use electronic medical records (EMRs) intend to purchase an EMR system within the next two years, according to a new report from Accenture (NYSE: ACN).

“If U.S. health care providers properly implement and use EMRs more broadly, there is no doubt that EMRs can make an important contribution to improving quality of care and controlling costs.”

Today, just six percent of U.S. office-based physicians use a fully functioning system.

Accenture’s Innovation Center for Health and Institute for Health & Public Service Value worked with Harris Interactive to survey 1,000 U.S. physicians from practices of fewer than 10 practitioners to measure their views of EMRs. Approximately 15 percent of respondents were users of EMRS and 85 percent were non-users.

The survey’s primary objective was to determine concerns and perceptions of EMRs and gauge motivating factors at a time when U.S. federal legislation includes incentives for physicians who implement and use EMRs and penalties for those who do not adopt EMRs by 2015. The New York Academy of Medicine assisted with the qualitative survey and analysis.

Among the key findings:

• 58 percent of non-users intend to purchase an EMR system within the next two years;
• About 80 percent of physicians under the age of 55 plan to implement an EMR system within the next two years;
• Three-quarters of non-users are intrigued by the idea of purchasing an EMR system from a local hospital - if the purchase is at least partially subsidized by the hospital;
• On average, non-users would expect a hospital/health network to subsidize about half the cost of an EMR system;
• The key driver of EMR adoption is federal legislation - 61 percent cited federal penalties for non-adoption and 51 percent cited federal incentives;
• Non-users underestimate the cost and time requirements to implement an EMR system, but also have an exaggerated perception of difficulties in using EMR systems, compared to the actual experiences of EMR users; and
• The vast majority of current EMR users – 90 percent – believe that their EMR system has brought value to their practice, in particular “changing the way their practice works for the better.”

The 90 percent of users who feel their EMR system has been beneficial to their practice cited the following reasons:

• Their EMR system provides an effective overview of patients’ relevant history, records and information; and,
• Their EMR system allows quick and accurate data entry.

“Our research indicates that, as intended, federal legislation is an important driver of EMR adoption among U.S. physicians,” said Dr. Kip Webb, who leads Accenture’s clinical transformation practice. “If U.S. health care providers properly implement and use EMRs more broadly, there is no doubt that EMRs can make an important contribution to improving quality of care and controlling costs.”

SOURCE Accenture