Category — EMR

CMS must pay special attention to ensure that the final version of the proposed “meaningful use” rule for electronic health records fits with other rules for standards and certification, as well at the interim final rule for the certification of EHRs, Government Health IT reports.

Earlier this year, CMS published a notice of proposed rulemaking describing how health care providers can demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHRs to qualify for incentive payments under the 2009 federal economic stimulus package.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT also published an interim final rule describing required certification standards for EHR technology.

Tony Trenkle, CMS director of e-health and standards, recently stressed how the interplay between different regulations will be important in determining what health care providers will need to demonstrate to qualify for the incentive payments.

ONC policy analyst Steve Posnack said that CMS and ONC are coordinating their regulations to ensure that the standards set for determining meaningful use are in step with rules governing certification of EHRs (Mosquera, Government Health IT, 3/18).

Above article publish on http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2010/3/19/cms-aims-to-coordinate-meaningful-use-rules-with-other-regulations.aspx

Final awards of state health information exchange cooperative agreement program work to build health information exchange infrastructure throughout the states

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced awards to help states facilitate health information exchange and advance health information technology (health IT).  Funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, today’s  awards are part of the $2 billion effort to achieve widespread meaningful use of health IT and provide use of an electronic health record by every citizen by the year 2014.  Every state and eligible territory has now been awarded funds under this program.

“These critical investments will help unleash the power of health information technology to cut costs, eliminate paperwork, and help doctors deliver high-quality, coordinated care to patients,” said Secretary Sebelius. “States are important partners in improving and expanding our electronic health records system.  By improving the secure exchange of electronic health records between providers and hospitals within and across states, these awards mark a significant step in bringing our health system into the 21^st century.”

The health information exchange HIE awards announced today provide approximately $162 million to 16 states and qualified state designated entities (SDEs) to facilitate non-proprietary health information exchange that adheres to national standards.  Health information exchange is critical to enabling care coordination and improving the quality and efficiency of health care.

“Today’s announcement of awards to 16 states and SDEs marks a significant milestone with all states now empowered to start their journey towards identifying innovative ways to break down theses barriers that prevent the seamless exchange of information, so that we can give patients the access to care they deserve and expect,” stated Dr. David Blumenthal, national coordinator for health information technology.  “States play a critical leadership role in advancing the development of the exchange capacity of healthcare providers and hospitals within their states and across the nation. Health information exchange will enable eligible healthcare providers to be deemed meaningful users of health IT and receive incentive payments under the Medicare and Medicaid electronic health record (EHR) incentive program.”

These cooperative agreements were awarded under the authority of Title XIII of ARRA, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act which amends Title XXX of the Public Health Service Act by adding Section 3013, State Grants to Promote Health Information Technology. Section 3013 provides for the awarding of competitive grants to promote health information technology.  On February 12, 2010, HHS awarded $385 million to 40 states and SDEs.  The awards announced today complete the awarding of cooperative agreements funded by this program.

A listing of the state HIE competitive agreements announced today follow:

Additional information about the state HIE program may be found at http://healthit.hhs.gov/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=1488&parentname=CommunityPage&parentid=2&mode=2&in_hi_userid=10741&cached=true

And http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/sebelius-solis-announce-nearly-1-billion-recovery-act-investment-advancing-use-heal

Above article publish on http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2010pres/03/20100315a.html

By, Bernie Monegain

SAN JOSE, CA – The market for electronic medical record systems in North America will exceed $5.4 billion by 2015, according to a new report from Global Industry Analysts.

The same report, “Electronic Medical Record Systems: A North American and European Market Report,” pegs the European market at $1.4 billion by 2015.

Global Industry Analysts, Inc., (GIA) is a publisher of off-the-shelf market research. The company employs more than 800 people worldwide and publishes more than 1,100 full-scale research reports each year.

The main factors contributing to the adoption of EMR systems include effective management of the medication process, substantial clinical improvement, minimization of staff, and extraction of detailed data, according to GIA. The report does not mention recent government incentives tied to the meaningful use of healthcare information technology.

Though cost is the major constraint for healthcare centers in adopting EMRs, the ultimate reduction in costs is likely to drive the demand for EMR systems in the future, the report states.

The market growth will be driven primarily by the increasing recognition by healthcare providers that digital records help in effective communication between the clinical staff, and thereby increase operational efficiency, the GIA report notes. As clinicians and physicians spend less time on searching and filing data, there is an increased level of patient satisfaction.

“Healthcare information technology gained attention in recent years for its ability to lower medical errors, provide transparent modes for reimbursement procedures, decrease costs, and transform the healthcare delivery system,” the report states. “There are prolific opportunities in less-penetrated markets as physician practices and inpatient centers continue to adopt electronic medical records and digitize relevant areas. Though the operating costs are high and continue to increase, providers are sizing up their portfolio for better positioning in the future.”

North America and Europe dominate the global electronic medical record (EMR) systems market, according to GIA. However, it adds, the market has excellent potential in healthcare systems worldwide.

Above article publish on http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/ehr-market-forecast-54b-2015

On December 30, 2009, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) at the Department of Health and Human Services issued proposed regulations on the definition of “meaningful use” and the initial set of standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria for EHR technology.

This announcement was made in conjunction with the publishing of two separate documents and a request for public comments:

Health Information Technology Initial Set of Standards, Implementation

Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Electronic Health Record Incentive Program

Beginning on page 32 of the “Medicare and Medicaid Programs: Electronic Health Record Incentive Program” document, a definition of “meaningful use” is provided along with associated discussions such as definition background and definition considerations.

Both documents discuss the proposed stages of “meaningful use”:

Stage 1 (beginning in 2011): The proposed Stage 1 meaningful use criteria “focuses on electronically capturing health information in a coded format; using that information to track key clinical conditions and communicating that information for care coordination purposes (whether that information is structured or unstructured, but in structured format whenever feasible); consistent with other provisions of Medicare and Medicaid law, implementing clinical decision support tools to facilitate disease and medication management; and reporting clinical quality measures and public health information.”

Stage 2 (beginning in 2013): CMS has proposed that its goals for the Stage 2 meaningful use criteria, “consistent with other provisions of Medicare and Medicaid law, expand upon the Stage 1 criteria to encourage the use of health IT for continuous quality improvement at the point of care and the exchange of information in the most structured format possible, such as the electronic transmission of orders entered using computerized provider order entry (CPOE) and the electronic transmission of diagnostic test results (such as blood tests, microbiology, urinalysis, pathology tests, radiology, cardiac imaging, nuclear medicine tests, pulmonary function tests and other such data needed to diagnose and treat disease). Additionally we may consider applying the criteria more broadly to both the inpatient and outpatient hospital settings.”

Stage 3 (beginning in 2015): CMS has proposed that its goals for the Stage 3 meaningful use criteria are, “consistent with other provisions of Medicare and Medicaid law, to focus on promoting improvements in quality, safety and efficiency, focusing on decision support for national high priority conditions, patient access to self management tools, access to comprehensive patient data and improving population health.”

Pages 51 through 61 of the “Health Information Technology Initial Set of Standards, Implementation” document provide Stage 1 “meaningful use” objectives in a table alongside corresponding certification criteria to support the achievement of “meaningful use” Stage 1 by eligible professionals and eligible hospitals. In reading this table, keep in mind the provided definition of “EHR module”:

EHR Module: any service, component, or combination thereof that can meet the requirements of at least one certification criterion adopted by the Secretary

The following note is provided alongside examples of EHR modules:

While the use of EHR Modules may enable an eligible professional or eligible hospital to create a combination of products and services that, taken together, meets the definition of Certified EHR Technology, this approach carries with it a responsibility on the part of the eligible professional or eligible hospital to perform additional diligence to ensure that the certified EHR Modules selected are capable of working together to support the achievement of meaningful use. In other words, two certified EHR Modules may provide the additional capabilities necessary to meet the definition of Certified EHR Technology, but may not integrate well with each other or with the other EHR technology they were added to. As a result, eligible professionals and eligible hospitals that elect to adopt and implement certified EHR Modules should take care to ensure that the certified EHR Modules they select are interoperable and can properly perform in their expected operational environment.

Pages 79 through 81of the “Health Information Technology Initial Set of Standards, Implementation” document elaborate on this interoperability requirement for patient summary records, drug formulary checks, electronic prescribing, administrative transactions, quality reporting, submission of lab results to public health agencies, submission to public health agencies for surveillance or reporting, and submission to immunization registries. Page 85 outlines adopted privacy and security standards for Certified EHR Technology, and the document distinguishes these standards from those associated with HIPAA.

With a combined total of nearly-700 pages, the two documents discussed here necessitate a thorough review that will take some time to digest. This post simply provides an initial level of awareness that these documents have been published.

Above article publish on http://nvisia.com/techs/?p=364

Last week, CMS released proposed regulations defining the “meaningful use” of electronic health records, Reuters reports (Wutkowski/Heavey, Reuters, 12/31/09).

In addition, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT released an interim final rule describing the required certification standards for EHR technology (Simmons, HealthLeaders Media, 12/31/09).

Under the 2009 federal economic stimulus package, health care providers who demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHRs will qualify for incentive payments through Medicaid and Medicare.

Officials will offer a 60-day public comment period after both regulations are published in the Federal Register on Jan. 13. The interim final rule on EHR certification is scheduled to take effect 30 days after publication (Goedert, Health Data Management, 12/30/09).

Phased Approach to Meaningful Use

CMS’ plan proposes phasing in meaningful use requirements over three stages between now and 2013.

The first stage of the meaningful use criteria emphasizes:

• Collecting electronic health data in coded formats;
• Implementing clinical decision support tools;
• Reporting clinical quality measures and public health data; and
• Using EHR data to track conditions and coordinate care (Monegain, Healthcare IT News, 12/30/09).

The criteria call for physicians to submit at least 80% of their orders electronically and for hospitals to submit at least 10% of orders electronically. The proposed rules also call for health care providers to use EHRs to check for potential drug interactions (Perrone, AP/San Francisco Chronicle, 12/30/09).

In addition, the rule requires health care providers to provide patients with electronic copies of their medical records within 48 hours of a request (Hensley, “Shots,” NPR, 12/31/09).

A list of Stage 1 criteria for physicians and a list of Stage 1 criteria for hospitals are available from Healthcare IT News (Healthcare IT News, 12/30/09).

The Stage 2 criteria are expected to focus on structured data exchange and continuous quality improvement. CMS is scheduled to release the second phase criteria by the end of 2011.

The Stage 3 criteria are expected to center on advanced decision support and population health. CMS is scheduled to publish the third phase criteria by the end of 2013.

Certification Criteria for EHRs

ONC’s interim final rule outlines the technical standards and features that EHR systems must include to receive certification for meaningful use.

The rule includes:

• Standard formats for clinical summaries and prescriptions;
• Standard terms to describe clinical problems, laboratory tests, medications and procedures; and
• Standards for secure transmission of online data.

The rule focuses solely on standards for certified EHRs. Later in 2010, ONC is scheduled to release additional guidance on the process for EHR certification.

Reduced Budget for Incentive Payments

When federal officials released the two new regulations, they also announced that the government might distribute less money than anticipated for the incentive payment program.

Initially, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that total federal incentive payouts could reach $34 billion (Mosquera, Government Health IT, 12/30/09).

However, officials last week said the outlays are likely to range from $14.1 billion to $27.3 billion.

They added that the government might pursue further budget revisions after evaluating the popularity of the incentive payment program (Schulte/Schwartz, Huffington Post Investigative Fund, 12/30/09).

Above article publish on http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2010/1/4/officials-announce-meaningful-use-ehr-certification-criteria.aspx

Mary Mosquera, Government Health IT

National Health IT Coordinator David Blumenthal, MD, emphasized Thursday that quality measures are at the heart of his office’s strategy for using IT to transform the U.S. healthcare system.

“The key to meaningful use is to know how to measure for performance and to be able to give feedback to providers,” he said at a conference sponsored by the National Quality Forum, which promotes and develops quality measures.

The aim is to take existing quality measures and convert them into metrics that can be incorporated into electronic health records in a standard form so they can be compared across practices and geography, he said.

“We expect that to be an ever more important requirement to improve healthcare,” Blumenthal said, adding that the National Quality Forum is retooling some existing measures for use in electronic health records.

Under the HITECH provisions of the stimulus law, physicians and hospitals that are meaningful users of electronic health records will be eligible for Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments starting in 2011.

The requirements for meaningful use in 2011 are tasks that many providers already perform, but those for 2013 and 2015 will increasingly support improved patient outcomes, said Paul Tang, chief medical director of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation.

Tang is also a vice chairman of the Health IT Policy Committee, a public-private panel that advises the national health IT coordinator.

Providers will submit quality measures to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Tang said. These include widely used metrics, such as the percent of patients with hypertension who have their blood pressure under control, or the percent of patients whose body mass index is recorded to track obesity.

“Just the act of measuring will continuously cause us to improve,” Tang said.

Blumenthal emphasized that the meaningful use of electronic health records is not just about introducing technology to collect and share information. It’s also about physicians and hospitals changing how they operate and the sequence of their work. “We are involved in a vast social project of change management,” he noted.

Providing better information is the foundation for change, he said. Beyond that, physicians and hospitals will need help and training to understand what improvements to make.

“I know this from my own experience as a physician,” he said. “You can show me that my results are not up to those of my colleagues. That didn’t mean I knew how to improve them.”

He cited activities, such as workflow redesign, workforce education and rearranging offices and nurses’ stations so that the right information is more accessible.

ONC will help providers adopt these techniques in their own practices through its regional extension center program, which will assist providers in deploying and operating electronic health records.

Above article published on http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/blumenthal-puts-quality-reporting-core-meaningful-use

By Rebecca Vesely / HITS staff writer

Proposed rules on the meaningful use of electronic health records will be made public by the end of the year or perhaps sooner, said David Blumenthal, national coordinator for health information technology at HHS.

In a speech before the American Medical Informatics Association’s annual symposium in San Francisco, Blumenthal stressed that health IT must be focused on the goal of making the healthcare system work better for patients and providers.

It’s not the technology that’s important, but its effect,” Blumenthal said. “That’s the purpose of the stimulus bill.”

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 included Medicare and Medicaid incentives to eligible providers such as physicians and hospitals to boost adoption of EHRs. To receive the incentive payments, providers must demonstrate “meaningful use” of a certified EHR. The CMS, in conjunction with Blumenthal’s office, is developing the proposed rule that provides greater detail on the incentive program and a definition of meaningful use. The stimulus law, enacted in February, appropriated $2 billion to Blumenthal’s office to create the infrastructure for meaningful use.

After a comment period, the final rule on meaningful use will be released in the spring, Blumenthal said.

While Blumenthal declined to give a specific definition of meaningful use, he offered some hints. People working in health IT should think about EHRs “not as a technology project, but as a change-management project,” he said. Components of meaningful use include sociology, psychology, behavior change and the “mobilization of levers to change complex systems and improve their performance,” he added.

Through the stimulus law, Congress mandated that meaningful use become more focused over time, with yearly benchmarks. There has been a “lively discussion” in the Obama administration of that timetable in the proposed rulemaking of meaningful use, Blumenthal said.

“We will be looking for your feedback,” Blumenthal told the assembled association of nearly 2,000 members who attended the conference held at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square this week. “Rulemaking is not the end of the conversation.”

Privacy and security are absolutely critical to the widespread adoption of health IT, Bluementhal said, adding that this is also on top of his agenda. “Without the trust of the public, we will not be successful in getting everything out of the potential of health informatics.”

In the next few months, his office will convene a working group on privacy and security to look at what else is necessary to ensure the public’s trust beyond what is instructed by Congress in the stimulus law, he said.

“We need to be extremely vigilant and aggressive in terms of developing standards around privacy and security,” Blumenthal said.

And his office is moving forward with its first grant programs under the stimulus law. Last summer, Blumenthal announced two grant programs mandated by the stimulus law. The first is $700 million in grants to establish up to 70 health IT regional extension centers nationwide, which will offer technical assistance, guidance and information on best practices to support and accelerate providers’ efforts to become meaningful users of EHRs. The second program offers $560 million in grants to states to develop health information exchange capacities among providers.

The first round of grant recipients will be announced soon, Blumenthal said. HHS received about 90 applications for the first 20 slots in the health IT regional extension center program, he said, adding that he was encouraged by the volume and quality of the grant applications.

“The grants to states, we believe, are another good bet,” he said.

Blumenthal also gave some hints on his office’s plans to develop and announce programs to increase the supply of trained health IT workers.

“The skills needed are not necessarily what our teenage children have,” Blumenthal said, which brought laughter from the crowd.

Specifically, the nation needs professionals who understand meaningful use and improved processes of care, the ability to redesign workplaces to integrate the new technology and to help providers use the technology to its full potential, he said.

“The training needed is well beyond the installation of information technology,” he said.

Blumenthal expressed great confidence that health IT can be a foundation for fundamental change in the healthcare system.

“I believe it will be a short time before EHRs are as common in medicine as the stethoscope, the cardiogram, the MRI and other core tools,” he said. “I think we’re already moving in that direction.”

Above article published on http://www.modernhealthcare.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091117/REG/311179986/1134

By Brian Robinson,

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is still on target to publish by the end of the year a proposed rule on the meaningful use of electronic health records, despite growing fears from industry about the possible impact of the regulation.

Tony Trenkle, director of the Office of e-Health Standards and Services at CMS, said he had been spending a lot of time with health industry folks who have expressed “concerns and fears” about what will be in the regulation.

Those include how high the bar will be set for meeting meaningful use targets during the first year of implementation, and whether the industry will be able to meet them, he told a meeting today of National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS).

Other concerns include whether hospitals outpatient clinics would be eligible to receive separate payments, whether quality measures will disadvantage specialty health providers, and worries particularly by the states about whether CMS would be able to harmonize Medicare and Medicaid requirements.

Under the HITECH Act, a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, health care providers can receive payments from both the Medicare and Medicaid programs if they can demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHRs. Payments are due to begin in 2011.

One of the major outcomes of the Nov. 19-20 NCVHS meeting is expected be a letter setting out recommendations to the Secretary of the Health and Human Services for measures that can be applied to decide on just what meaningful use is.

They include commissioning a “fast track” study from the Institute of Medicine on a national strategy for quality measurement development, to begin a process to identify essential data elements, to require EHR vendors to use defined quality data elements, and to require that any certified EHR be able to add data elements that may be defined in the future.

The NCVHS expects to release the final version of the letter at the Nov. 20 conclusion of its meeting.

Above article published on http://www.govhealthit.com/newsitem.aspx?tid=10&nid=72449

Posted by Mitch Wagner,

National health IT coordinator Dr. David Blumenthal dropped a big hint about upcoming criteria for giving out e-health records grants. He advised healthcare IT managers to focus on “goals of care” rather than technology.

Blumenthal works for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which is responsible for giving out grant money to reimburse healthcare providers for implementing electronic medical records. The U.S. American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), which set aside the money, specified that the funding will go to “meaningful use” of EMRs, but did not specify a definition for the phrase. HHS plans to release a preliminary definition of meaningful use next month. But Blumenthal dropped a hint at an address at the Medical Informatics Association’s annual symposium. He “gave attendees what they wanted to hear by reiterating his philosophy that technology simply is an enabler of quality improvement, not a panacea for healthcare,” according to FierceEMR.

“The meaningful use framework will be about the goals of care, not the technology,” Blumenthal said. While he didn’t elaborate on that statement, he did state the position of the Obama administration–one largely held by the informatics community, if not the broader healthcare industry–that the billions of dollars in federal subsidies aren’t simply meant to buy EMRs for providers. “It’s not the money that will turn out to be the most important,” Blumenthal said.

Instead, the net $19 billion investment is a way to demonstrate that EMRs should and will be accepted in the fairly near future as “symbolic of professionalism in medicine,” just as much as the stethoscope or examination table are today. “The idea that government should subsidize health IT will be as foreign an idea that the government should buy stethoscopes or exam tables for doctors,” Blumenthal explained.

“Information is really the lifeblood of medicine,” Blumenthal added. “Health information technology is its circulatory system.”

Final standards for meaningful use will be released in the spring, after a period of public comment on the first effort to be released by the end of the year, according to a ModernHealthcare.com write-up of Blumenthal’s address.

Blumenthal stressed that health IT must be focused on the goal of making the healthcare system work better for patients and providers.

“It’s not the technology that’s important, but its effect,” Blumenthal said. “That’s the purpose of the stimulus bill.”….

While Blumenthal declined to give a specific definition of meaningful use, he offered some hints. People working in health IT should think about EHRs “not as a technology project, but as a change-management project,” he said. Components of meaningful use include sociology, psychology, behavior change and the “mobilization of levers to change complex systems and improve their performance,” he added.

Through the stimulus law, Congress mandated that meaningful use become more focused over time, with yearly benchmarks. There has been a “lively discussion” in the Obama administration of that timetable in the proposed rulemaking of meaningful use, Blumenthal said.

Privacy and security will be essential, he said.

HHS plans to announce the first round of recipients of two major rounds of grants soon, Blumenthal said. The first, for $700 million, will establish up to 70 health IT regional extension centers nationwide to help healthcare providers become meaningful users of EHRs. The second program offers $560 million in grants to states to develop health information exchanges linking providers.

HHS also plans programs to increase the supply of trained health IT workers.

“The skills needed are not necessarily what our teenage children have,” Blumenthal said, which brought laughter from the crowd.

Specifically, the nation needs professionals who understand meaningful use and improved processes of care, the ability to redesign workplaces to integrate the new technology and to help providers use the technology to its full potential, he said.

“The training needed is well beyond the installation of information technology,” he said.

Blumenthal expressed great confidence that health IT can be a foundation for fundamental change in the healthcare system.

“I believe it will be a short time before EHRs are as common in medicine as the stethoscope, the cardiogram, the MRI and other core tools,” he said. “I think we’re already moving in that direction.”

Above article published on http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2009/11/blumenthal_pati.html;jsessionid=0K5NXFIO4JNUHQE1GHOSKHWATMY32JVN

Posted by Lora Bentley

Dr. David Blumenthal, the national health IT coordinator, is responsible for doling out government grants to reimburse health care organizations that implement electronic records technology. According to the HITECH section of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, nearly $22 billion in federal funds has been set aside to “advance the use of health information technology.” A significant portion of that amount will take the form of grants to those health care organizations that can demonstrate “meaningful use” of such IT.

However, what exactly “meaningful use” will entail has been unclear. HHS is expected to release a definition in December, InformationWeek blogger Mitch Wagner says. But those who attended the Medical Informatics Association’s symposium got a “heads up” from Blumenthal on what that definition will focus on.

FierceEMR’s Neil Versel quotes Blumenthal this way:

The meaningful use framework will be about the goals of care, not the technology.

It’s a matter of using technology to improve patient care, not just installing the technology to say you have it. Versel speculates that the goal is to make electronic recordkeeping a best practice, the EMR system a standard medical tool, just as stethoscopes and examination tables are standard now.

Take, for instance, my own experience. I visited the local immediate care center over the weekend when I got tired of a wrenched neck muscle making my life miserable.I filled out the initial paperwork, listed my maintenance prescriptions, gave them the name of my primary care physician, the date of my last visit to her office, insurance information and all the rest. When they called me back, I gave my primary doctor’s name and listed all my meds and my medication allergies (again) for the nurse who took my temperature and blood pressure.

Then, guess what? The doctor came in, looked at my chart, asked again who my primary care physician was and what kinds of anti-inflammatory and muscle spasm medications had worked for me in the past, which ones irritated my stomach and which ones didn’t. After a little over an hour, I was out of there, prescriptions in hand, confident that the pain in my neck was about to go away.

All in all, it was a good experience — especially considering I would have waited at least twice that long if I had gone to the emergency room. But, I was reminded how helpful health IT will be. If the immediate care center and my primary care office had EMR systems that allowed easy sharing of patient information — with my consent, of course — then my visit would have been even quicker. I wouldn’t have had to go through the litany of information three times, and the doctor who treated me would have had my medication history at her fingertips, allowing her to make better informed decisions.

Above article published on http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/blogs/bentley/hitech-meaningful-use-more-about-improving-patient-care-than-tech-itself/?cs=37689