Meaningful Use
The EHR vendor market landscape may be poised for a shakeup, as according to recent reports, Cerner may be exploring the possibility of acquiring the health IT division of Siemens Healthcare, which was among the EHR vendors that failed to increase marketshare in 2013.
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT continues to reshape itself as it adjusts to funding limits. To that end, National Coordinator Karen DeSalvo, MD, has outlined a new working group structure for ONC's Health IT Policy Committee.
As David Blumenthal, MD, sees it, Stage 2 is where the rubber meets the road for the Meaningful Use EHR Incentive Program -- the government's grand scheme to drag the American healthcare system, kicking and screaming, into the 21st Century. But, is it proving to be just too much for most providers?
The EHR Association, which is made up of nearly 40 EHR companies, urged the Office of the National Coordinator and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to provide the meaningful use final rule ASAP.
CMS and ONC revealed the latest statistics on Tuesday morning, showing that 1 percent of eligible providers and 3 percent of eligible hospitals have attested to Stage 2 to date.
Darrel Whitmill, RN, manager of physician informatics and meaningful use at Cumberland Medical Center in Crossville, Tenn., wanted to beat the rush to Stage 2 meaningful use attestation, and he did.
Joanne Sunquist knows Epic. As the chief information officer at the four-hospital HealthEast Care System in Minnesota, she's successfully spearheaded the new $135 million Epic electronic medical record implementation within an aggressive 14-month timeline across the hospitals, which went live June 1. The health system's 14 clinics will follow suit by December.
Both the American Medical Association and the Medical Group Management Association want extra time for eligible professionals to submit for a meaningful use hardship exemption.
Lygeia Ricciardi, the first director of the Office of Consumer eHealth at ONC, will step down on July 25, National Coordinator KarenDeSalvo, MD, announced in an email to ONC staff.
Serving a multi-ethnic patient population that speaks six different languages -- with five different alphabets! -- is just one of the Stage 2 meaningful use challenges for New York Hospital Queens.