Hospitals Rely on Prognosis ChartAccess EHR to Attest to Meaningful Use Requirements

HOUSTON, May 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Stamford (Texas) Memorial Hospital and Hemphill County Hospital, Canadian, Texas, were among the first in line to attest to their meaningful use of electronic health records, putting the hospitals in a position to qualify for their share of the $27 billion in incentive funds emanating from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).  Both hospitals are using ChartAccess® Comprehensive EHR from Prognosis Health Information Systems.

To qualify for the money associated with the HITECH provisions of ARRA, healthcare providers need to install certified electronic health record (EHR) systems and prove that they are using the systems in a "meaningful" way by attesting to the fact that they are meeting specific user requirements.  For example, hospitals need to ensure that more than 50% of patients' demographic data is recorded as structured data, more than 50% of requesting patients receive electronic copies of their records within three business days and at least one clinical decision support rule is implemented.

Both Stamford and Hemphill documented their realization of these quantitative measures from January through the end of March.  On April 20th, just the third day that the government was accepting submissions, Stamford entered its meaningful use data into the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) EHR Incentive Portal for final review and determination that the hospital has met Stage 1 Meaningful Use criteria. Rick DeFoore, CEO at Stamford, expects that the hospital's attestation will be approved – and the facility will eventually receive its share of the incentive funds. Likewise, Hemphill participated in the attestation exercise on April 29th and also expects to qualify for the incentive funds.

"We have engaged users very quickly thanks to the hard work of our chief medical officer, chief nursing officer and a number of other clinical leaders and staff members. In addition, by relying on a meaningful use dashboard in the ChartAccess system, we were able to continually monitor where we stood in relation to the various measures that we had to meet to prove meaningful use. The tool enabled us to move forward quickly, knowing that we were meeting the requirements that would help us earn the incentive funds. And, as a result, we expect to become one of the very first hospitals in the country to qualify for the government's incentive funds," DeFoore says.

The hospitals' quick realization of the clinical and operational benefits associated with an EHR can, in part, be attributed to how relatively easy it is to leverage the Prognosis system in the hospital setting. One of the first two Complete EHRs to receive ONC-ATCB-2011-2012 certification, ChartAccess is designed to quickly lead providers toward EHR success. Designed by clinicians for clinicians, the system makes it easy to overcome many of the commonly cited cost, usability and workflow obstacles to EHR implementation. In addition, the solution meets the mobility needs of end-users with features such as iPhone and iPad applications that make it possible to view patient rounding lists, process orders and access results at the point of care.

"Because the system is so easy to use, we are now concentrating on leveraging as much of the functionality as possible to help us enhance clinical care and provide our patients with a better hospital experience. By doing so, we trust that we will be in a good position to meet the meaningful use requirements for Stage 2 of the ARRA initiative once they are more clearly defined," says Patrick Murfee, director of information systems at Hemphill.

Prognosis plans to continue to work closely with providers as they strive to further tap into the clinical, administrative and workflow potential associated with the use of electronic records.  

"We have made a commitment to work closely with all of our customers to ensure that they can make the most of their investments in technology. So, they can rest assured that we will do what it takes to help them meet incentive fund requirements as the government continues to roll out the program. Perhaps more importantly, though, we continue to work hand-in-hand with all of the hospitals using ChartAccess to ensure that they are fully tapping into the software's potential to improve processes and care for the communities and patients that they serve," says Ramsey Evans, CEO of Prognosis Health Information Systems.

About Prognosis Health Information Systems

Prognosis Health Information Systems, Inc., Houston, aims to improve the quality and safety of patient care through ChartAccess, a certified Comprehensive EHR. Designed to be fully operational in less than six months at a predictable, affordable cost, the solution enables hospitals to meet meaningful use and improve patient outcomes by leveraging built-in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) milestone and quality measure tracking functionality. PHIS uses 21st-Century technologies to offer small community hospitals a pure browser-based system that can run on-premise or in the cloud. For more information, go to www.prognosishis.com.

SOURCE Prognosis Health Information Systems