SAN ANTONIO — The ongoing challenges of meeting meaningful use requirements are top of mind for CIOs gathered at the CHIME Fall Forum. Many expressed concern with various aspects of the program — a 365-day reporting period that went into effect Oct. 1 for fiscal 2015; requirements for electronic exchange of summary of care records; patients’ ability to view, download or transmit their records and more.
And if you look at the numbers, maybe government officials should be worried as well, especially with expectations that a rule for Stage 3 will be promulgated in 2015.
“The data trending for meaningful use is problematic, to say the least,” CHIME Vice President of Public Policy Jeff Smith said during a policy briefing Thursday afternoon. The numbers for hospitals “are not pretty” and are worse when you look at physicians, he said.
For 2014, 1,509 hospitals and 38,671 doctors successfully attested, according to CMS. Looking just at Stage 2, there were 665 hospitals and 9,628 doctors as of Oct. 27.
For as much hallway complaining as there was about meaningful use, one of my favorite things about this meeting is that it’s mainly focused on how hospitals are deploying IT systems to transform clinical programs. Take Hoag Memorial Hospital, which has united with physicians and post-acute providers to develop a robust information exchange. Senior Vice President and CIO Tim Moore explains what they are doing in this video:
