MEANINGFUL USE 2 and PHR - I

The New and Revised Standards of meaningful use stage 2 requirements were recently released. The core items of this legislation are as follows:  

• Patients are provided online access to their health information through a web portal on 50% of the occasions. Further 10% unique patients actually view, download or transmit that data to a third party.
• Successful on going submission of electronic immunization data from certified Electronic Health Record technology to an immunization registered is now a requirement. Previously on stage 1, only a test was acceptable.
• Practitioners are supposed to provide a summary of care record for 65% of transitions of care during referrals or transfer of patient care settings. They are also required to electronically transmit 10% across Electronic Health Records vendor types and organizations. This measure is a combination of Stage 1 core items (problem list, active medication list and active medication allergy list) to emphasize increased data exchange.

A large component of this stage is patient engagement.  Therefore health care givers should enable tracking of online accesses by patients. This should be viewed and downloaded and may include the transmission of events in a human readable format of PHI like diagnostic test results, medication list, problem list, medication allergy list, procedures, clinical summaries and discharge instructions.

Another requirement of the rule is that more than 10 percent of patients and any physician should correspond via the secure messaging. Patients and physicians are encouraged to communicate via text messages through a secure messaging or via an encrypted mail. This way, patients will be able to reach their health care information from their physicians in a timely manner due to the electronic access.

Health care givers who are participating in the stimulus incentives program have to prove that they adhere to the rules and requirements. This is where the use of Patient Health Records (PHR) becomes important. This does not only help patients to access, organize and update their health data but also assist qualified physicians meet part of the requirements of the meaningful use. The PHR also gives patients the opportunity to view, download and transmit their medical records online.

Patient Health Records (PHR) is a record kept by a patient about their health information. This can be updated by the patient and shared with their physicians. Health care gives can also update these records during the patient visits. Therefore, the record consists of the patient’s health data and information in relation to the care that they get from health care givers. The patient has the liberty to choose the contents of the PHR and further determine how the records are stored. They also have the ability to choose what information their physicians have access to. This greatly improves privacy and the patients are assured of their health information security. The main purpose of a PHR solution is to provide an accurate summary of a patient’s medical history which can be easily accessed. This is further demonstrated by the way the PHR solutions provides a single source for authentication and remote access of the health information data from all EMR systems. The information included in the PHR is immunisation, lab results, prescriptions, hospitalizations, medical tests, insurance information, etc.

Some PHR systems are incorporated into the Electronic Health Records or Electronic Medical Records such as,

• Patient Ally which is part of the Office Ally EMR (Electronic Medical Records) which is also an accredited EHNAC organization.
• Patient Fusion which is freely incorporated into the Practice Fusion Electronic Health Records.

Read Meaningful Use 2 and PHR - II