The ONC’s Federal Health IT Plan is unquestionably ambitious – and it ought to be. But is it realistic?
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT posted the draft of its strategic plan in March, opened a public comment period and, as comments began to pour in, subsequently extended that period.
The extended public comment period closed late last week, and there’s no reason to anticipate sweeping alterations to the final version.
“They may tweak the plan, but I would guess there won’t be real directional changes because the comments did not call for that,” said Brian Ahier, a health IT evangelist at Mid-Columbia Medical Center, outside of Portland, Ore.
The more pointed question just might be whether modernizing healthcare with a booster shot of electronic health information is technologically or culturally achievable within the timeframe called for in the plan – between now and 2015.
[News analysis: The noble goals and missing pieces of ONC’s draft Federal Health IT Plan.]
Indeed, a small, single-question Government Health IT online reader poll determined that only 20 percent of respondents believe the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan, 2011-2015, is attainable in a reasonable time frame.
On the opposing side, 36 percent of voting readers said the plan is not realistic – rather, it’s “too much, too soon.” The remaining 44 percent of the 25 voters perhaps optimistically opted for “it’s just too early to tell.”
Webmenders HIT consultant Patrick Howard summed up a popular sentiment: “I believe the health IT verbiage should be more specific.”
Those interviewed for this article pointed to missing pieces such as usability requirements for EHRs, a telehealth vision, more detail about implementation, privacy and security.
Ahier added that “both the criticism and the beauty of this plan is that it’s necessarily vague to allow them the flexibility to adjust to shifting landscapes.”
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That includes technological developments, changes in the market and unforseen advancements.
“As far as meeting a schedule and declaring success, it comes down to getting the public to use EHRs,” said Mary Lamb, COO of Suss Consulting, a federal market management consulting firm with a health IT line of business.
Ahier added that the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan was essentially former ONC director David Blumenthal’s swan song, wherein he constructed the vision, intentionally leaving detail about implementation of the requisite technologies to his successor.
“Implementation,” Ahier continued, “that’s (new ONC director) Farzad’s (Mostashari) job.”