Health care providers working on attestation for the first two stages of Meaningful Use have to meet rigid requirements with electronic health records. Using online portals and other health information technology, doctors have to engage patients to take control of their well-being to improve the care process as a whole.
However, if EHR software and other clinical programs are unable to send and receive information to one another, patient engagement efforts can fall short.
Federal agency asserts plans for health IT interoperability
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has made industry-wide interoperability its main goal for the year, and the agency is soon going to release detailed plans for achieving this. During that time, the ONC will be fielding feedback from health care stakeholders, including medical imaging physicians, to get an accurate picture of the potential challenges for interoperability in the near future.
In an interview with EHRIntelligence, the ONC's Interoperability and Exchange Portfolio Manager Erica Galvez explained the importance of the agency's endeavor and the role it plays in advancing the health care community. The ONC is aiming to take a more holistic view of health IT and trying to see from the perspective of patients and providers, the very people most affected by EHRs and other clinical software.
Much of the feedback has indicated that providers want the federal agency to be more assertive in standards and governance of health IT. However, an equal amount of doctors have asked for less prescriptive activity from the ONC and allow the industry itself to work out the kinks before having the government step in.
Galvez stated that the EHR Incentive Programs from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have provided good learning opportunities for the ONC, but the lack of interoperability was not something that agency had anticipated. Yet, the hope is that the new perspective will help dictate upcoming plans to advance health IT even further and facilitate the exchange of health information between providers.
Boston facility revamping EHR details
In addition to interoperable health IT, physicians need to practice active patient engagement to meet with standards of Stage 2 Meaningful Use. By sharing data and interacting with at least 5 percent of their population, doctors can ensure they continue to receive financial incentives from CMS for their efforts.
Recently, a pilot program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, aimed to improve the use of EHRs in the clinical setting by allowing patients to personally review and contribute notes to their own records. FierceEMR reported that the OpenNotes initiative is currently expanding to other facilities.
OurNotes, the pilot funded by a $450,000 grant from The Commonwealth Fund, was tested at Geisinger Health System in Danville, Pennsylvania, and Heartland Health in St. Joseph, Missouri. Since the original experiment was first launched, the program has grown to cover 5 million patients in the U.S. In addition, Beth Israel expanded the capabilities of OurNotes to allow individuals access to their mental health notes, too.
"This is really the next stage of development for medical records, we think. … OurNotes will invite patients to be active rather than passive participants in care," said Jan Walker, co-director of the project at BIDMC and Harvard Medical School, quoted by FierceEMR.
If giving people access to their notes becomes the standard of care, patient engagement could become more prevalent at practices around the country. With the ONC amid a review of existing health IT, OurNotes could garner national attention in no time.
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Ronny Bachrach
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