Wouldn't it be nice if Meaningful Use to go the way of the dinosaur?
That's the sentiment Health IT consultant John Lynn, author of the EMR and HIPAA blog, who laments in that Meaningful Use requirements are stifling the industry and causing providers to choose the wrong EHR systems for their practices.
"Far too many clinics are so focused on Meaningful Use and EHR incentives that they're ignoring the real and tangible business causes for implementing an EHR in their clinics," he warns. Lynn also believes that Meaningful Use has "hijacked" the software development cycle of EHR vendors.
He does acknowledge that Meaningful Use is here to stay. But some of the other items on his wish list are a bit less fanciful, such as increased interoperability among EHR systems, institution of patient identifiers and real EMR differentiation.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Lynn is not the only health IT professional who finds Meaningful Use more of a hindrance than a help. Relief from the regulatory requirement of Meaningful Use is at the top of many CIO's wish lists, according to a recent article from Health Data Management, which also reports that CIOs are "mired" in Meaningful Use and are concerned that attempting to convert to ICD-10 at the same time will sidetrack hospitals from deploying their EHR systems.
To learn more:
- here's the EMR and HIPAA blog post
- read the healthcare CIO wish list