CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) have established standards and certification criteria that EHRs must use in order to successfully capture and calculate objectives for Stage 2 of Meaningful Use. These new standards and certification criteria now in effect.

The Electronic Health Record Association (EHR Association), a non-profit association of more than 40 EHR companies, created an electronic health record (EHR) Developer Code of Conduct, which aims to encourage transparency and collaboration among EHR developers, as well as developers, providers, and industry stakeholders. The latest version of the code of conduct is available as a pdf here: http://bit.ly/13A1oLc

On the first page, the very first item (after a general statement) is Patient Safety.
The code says:

Here are the Top 10 Healthcare Usability Myths Debunked

Myth # 1 Clinicians are uncomfortable with technology and just need more training.

Fact: Current HIT systems often don’t fit the way end users think and work.

Myth # 2 Put it all on 1 screen to make it easier to use.

Fact: Developers need to understand workflows and tasks to know what information is needed.

Myth # 3 Whoever has the Most features wins.

Fact: Vet your current feature set. Less may be more.

Today’s digital omnivores express a preference for mobile screens across all professional tasks – an important behavioral shift that has potential to dramatically shape the way developers, content providers and marketers engage with clinicians as the three-screen workflow becomes the norm. As physicians and other healthcare

Vitera Healthcare Solutions, a provider of ambulatory electronic health records (EHR) and practice management software and services, announced a complimentary webinar to help physicians and their practices prepare for upcoming Meaningful Use Stage 2 requirements.

Physicians, practice administrators, billing managers and all office-based staff members can attend “7 Practical Steps to Meaningful Use Stage 2” on August 28, 2013, from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. ET, by registering at www.viterahealthcare.com/MU2

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) maintains a FAQ database ( https://questions.cms.gov/ ) questions submitted for answers having to do with provider programs.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has issued new guidance for health information organizations on how to support providers in enabling patients to view, download and transmit their electronic health records data, a new requirement in Stage 2 of the EHR meaningful use program.

On July 23, 2013, the American Hospital Association and the American Medical Association sent a joint letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius asking for greater flexibility in the requirements of the meaningful use program, HealthLeaders Media reports (Commins, HealthLeaders Media, 7/25).

Health care providers and vendors told a U.S. Senate committee about ongoing challenges in electronic health record (EHR) adoption and argued the federal government should consider delaying the next phase of the “meaningful use” programs and allow flexibility in meeting program requirements. The Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs provide incentives to providers that achieve “meaningful use” of EHR and impose penalties on those that do not.

Four members of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) testified to federal officials today, calling for safe, orderly transition to Meaningful Use Stage 2 that leaves no one behind.

Black Book Rankings has released the "2013 State of Replacement EHR Market Study," the most recent in a series of Black Book™ strategic industry reports focused on the healthcare technology market. The study is a follow up assessment on the status of electronic health record users, all of which indicated deal-breaking dissatisfaction with the current vendor, termed the "Year of the Great EHR Switch" in a previous Black Book poll.

We are pleased to announce that our talk, "Conducting Usability Evaluations for Meaning Use Stage 2 Funding " was presented at the OSEHRA 2nd Annual Summit.

When: Friday, September 6, 2013 10:30am White Oak Rm B

Where:
Bethesda North Marriott Conference Center

For information on conducting and reporting on the §170.314(g)(3) Safety-enhanced Design Criteria for meaningful use stage two certification see:

The new mark for certified electronic health records technology was unveiled Wednesday and will appear on EHR products that have been certified by an ONC-Authorized Certification Body, indicating that the product meets the 2014 Edition Standards and Certification Criteria.

Eligible professionals and hospitals must demonstrate meaningful use of EHR technology that has been certified under the ONC Health Information Technology Certification Program to qualify for Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive payments.

The federal government is happy to point out that more than 50 percent of physicians and 80 percent of hospitals are using electronic health record (EHR) systems, with those users having received some $14.6 billion in meaningful use incentives initially allocated in the 2009 stimulus.

In an effort to align the clinical quality measures used within the EHR Incentive Program with the goals of CMS and the Department of Health and Human Services, the National Quality Strategy (NQS), and recommendations from the Health Information Technology Policy Committee, each clinical quality measure has been assessed against six domains based on the NQS’s six priorities.

For some reason, everyone seems to like dashboards. Maybe it is because a lot of us can think better visually than we can with just text.

To help visual thinkers, The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs found an interesting way to publish the data about the adoption and meaningful use of health information technology.

The information displayed in their visual dashboard is derived from data published by CMS.