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Make Good Decisions for EMR Strategies with Guidelines from HIMSS Analytics

New white paper maps meaningful use requirements and HIMSS Analytics Electronic Medical Record Adoption ModelSM to help hospitals avoid mistakes and deliver defined data

CHICAGO (October 7, 2009) – As the nation continues its journey toward adoption of the electronic medical record, hospitals must understand and meet the funding requirements established by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  A new HIMSS Analytics white paper, The State of US Hospitals Relative to Achieving Meaningful Use Measurements, offers an overview of market gaps that must addressed to achieve ARRA compliance.   

“We created the mapping to provide insights for hospitals to help assess their EMR environments and strategies relative to current ARRA meaningful use measurements for 2011, 2013, and 2015,” says Mike Davis, author of the white paper and executive vice president, HIMSS Analytics.  “It provides a market assessment of adoption of some of the more sophisticated EMR applications related to where we believe these applications will impact 2011, 2013, and 2015 measurements.”

This 16-page reference guide on ARRA compliance and EMRAM applications looks at each of the three years coupled with the specific meaningful use goal. The meaningful use goals with specific metrics are:

  • Improve Quality, Safety, Efficiency, and Reduce Health Disparities Engage Patients and Family
  • Engage Patients and Families
  • Improve Care Coordination
  • Improve Population and Public Health
  • Ensure Adequate Privacy and Security Protection for Personal Health Information

What’s ahead for hospitals to comply with ARRA and meaningful use?  Here are a few conclusions that appear in the white paper.

  • Hospitals that have achieved a Stage 3 on the EMRAM are well positioned to meet the majority of the 2011, measures, if they have implemented the applications at this stage across all inpatient nursing services.
  • By 2013, hospitals must have CPOE implemented with a majority of physicians using the systems, and hospitals will need to report physician usage; hospitals will need to be at Stage 4 to meet this year’s requirements.
  • The measurements in 2015 will require the majority of clinicians and physicians to be using documentation systems, and have the ability to document using structured templates to collect discrete date in real time to interact with clinical decision support systems applications to improve outcomes and patient safety. The ability to share patient data with all care delivery stakeholders will also be required, which is consistent with Stage 6 and Stage 7 functions.

The final definition of meaningful use is yet to be determined with information expected by the end of the year followed by a public comment period in early 2010.  HIMSS Analytics is also providing a downloadable presentation of meaningful use/EMR mapping for both hospitals and ambulatory clinics using theacute care EMR Adoption Model and the new Ambulatory Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (AEMRAM). Easily downloaded from the Web site, the slide deck can be used in local discussions and presentations. The new AEMRAM model can also be found on the Web site.

 “Hospitals can survive this upcoming transformation of healthcare delivery,” says Davis.  “To do so, they must understand how and why the use of EMRs support the delivery of patient care…and understand the need to use EMRs to collect, manage, share and analyze data to improve the process of care delivery and reduce medical errors.”

Read The State of US Hospitals Relative to Achieving Meaningful Use Measurements on the HIMSS Analytics Web site.

Download the presentation and the AEMRAM model.  

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