Do The Right Thing

The question of what "meaningful use" per the ARRA and HITEC is on the verge of driving some healthcare IT professionals nuts. I'll admit it drives me nuts. There is a lot of money on the line for this definition. Money that could put on ROI analysis for EHR projects and help get them off the ground. Money that could help hospitals and medical practices underwrite the change management associated with getting physicians and clinicians on board.

Acceptance is release and I've accepted that we'll know when we know. Our budget cycle started in March and it's too late to wait. Meaningful use and the technologies it is supposed to espouse are meant to eventually make healthcare more accessible and affordable for the people and communities that we serve. If we focus on the projects that help accomplish that then we're doing the right thing. Here's where I hope we go next year...

1. Shore up any antiquated ancillaries - There are a remarkable number of hospitals that don't yet have pharmacy, diagnostic imaging and laboratory automation as it is. We have all three but at differing stages of maturity and integration. We need to make sure there are no chinks in this armor.
2. Rational metric reporting - Manual abstracting of charts and data entry into a public reporting system is not going to be feasible over the next five years. We have an EMR, we have to find better ways to leverage it!
3. HIE Strategy - Once you have an EMR then there is little to no excuse to tell an outside medical practice that you can't help them see medical records, with appropriate security, through an easily repeatable, standards compliant mechanism....

Meaningful use can wait if need be. If these things aren't central to meaningful use then perhaps it's missing the mark anyways...