EHR/EMR

Right now there are hundreds, even thousands, of physician practices using certified electronic health records (EHRs) with the functionality and product strategy capabilities to meet the objectives and requirements of the EHR Meaningful Use Final Rule released July 13.

Drivers of horse-drawn carriages put blinders on horses to block their peripheral vision.  This keeps the horses focused on what is ahead of them instead of being distracted by what is around them. While this may be a good thing for horses; what about for those of us who work in healthcare technology?

I recently attended the 2010 HIMSS Southern Regional Conference where two topics were discussed that really caught my attention: one on social networking (oh shades of my last blog) and meaningful use (aren’t you surprised!).  But since I like to focus on one thing per blog, I’m going to pick meaningful use and return to social networking at another time.

It’s obvious to say but well-worth emphasizing that the coming summer is arguably one of the most important in healthcare’s modern history as we await final EHR meaningful use and certification regulations. For CIOs, practice administrators and every stakeholder behind the creation of a national health information network bringing unlimited improvement of outcomes and financial savings, a working summer vacation is near.

While the majority of the Office of the National Coordinator’s (ONC) rulemaking proposal for the certification of meaningful use EHRs concerns the process of becoming a certifying entity, the 184-page document originally published March 2 is also a compelling look into the future.