Characterizing December as an “exceptional” month for Meaningful Use registration, attestation, and payments, Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) officials recently announced that $2.5 billion in Meaningful Use incentive payments had been distributed as of December 2011. Additionally, Robert Tagalicod from CMS reported to the HIT Policy Committee at its meeting earlier this month
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Size makes a difference when it comes to successfully attesting to Meaningful Use Stage 1, says the IT director of a Critical Access Hospital. “Bigger hospitals may have started before we did but they’re still working on meeting Meaningful Use,” says Craig Wells, IT director at George C. Grape Community Hospital in Hamburg, Iowa.  “In
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Health information systems are being implemented fast and furiously, driven by the prospect of Meaningful Use incentives. However, a growing concern among industry watchers is that when the HITECH dust settles, the outcome may be less than ideal.

With the rush to implement health information technology, it’s no wonder that everyone in healthcare feels overwhelmed.  Change, even in a less manic environment than today’s, is difficult and while pushback from users is something to be expected, there are strategies that CIOs can use to effectively manage change. 1.  Take a walk in a
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In a world where all certified EMR systems may be equal in terms of functionality needed to get organizations to Stage 1 Meaningful use, usability may be the differentiator that separates the good from the mediocre.  But how do purchasers know if the systems they’re buying are “usable?” Robert Schumacher, Ph.D., managing director of User
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Not knowing what you don’t know can be a risky proposition for physicians who are taking their first tentative steps toward an EMR purchase. No one wants to invest money something that’s supposed to help their patient and their practice, but ends up being a drain on limited time and resources.  Here’s some advice about
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Not everyone is unconditionally embracing the Stage 2 Meaningful Use delay announcement issued last month by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

While much of the reaction has been positive, one industry watcher believes that the delay, while good for implementers and some vendors, puts the brakes on market forces that would otherwise snuff out some of the Johnny-come-lately EMR products that have emerged, particularly in the ambulatory market.

Immediately following the release of the proposed EHR Usability Protocol document by NIST, the Electronic Health Record Association (EHRA) took issue with the draft’s thesis that “poor usability is a primary barrier to adoption and meaningful use of EHR systems.”  EHRA’s response was that “the assertion that usability is a material barrier to adoption is
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Convincing rural healthcare providers to invest their time and money in EHR adoption has traditionally been an uphill battle. But that’s beginning to change, says the director of a Regional Extension Center that works closely with rural providers.

Is Meaningful Use attestation difficult or not? Like most things, it depends on who you talk to. Citing operational and certification challenges, Chantal Worzala, PhD, director of policy for the American Hospital Association, says that with only 3 percent of the nation’s hospitals receiving Meaningful Use incentive dollars, getting to the point where hospitals feel
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