A Meaningful Beginning

As  healthcare professionals briefly pause to assess October’s advent of the Meaningful Use incentives trigger, and whether we acknowledge, critique or celebrate the milestone, it’s more important to realize that what Meaningful Use has accomplished is the fulfillment of much of its promise as only the beginning, or the foundation, of a truly advanced and sustainable healthcare system.

Consider that little more than a year ago, Meaningful Use was a relatively esoteric term that has gone on to capture the imagination and the daily reality of healthcare providers on the front lines.

There are tangible reasons to believe it:

-          A September survey by the Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) found that fully 77 percent of the health IT professionals asked said their organization plans to pursue the incentives, that 76 percent have done a cost analysis and 45 percent believe they will be able to demonstrate Meaningful Use for 90 consecutive days during 2011.

-          Even more encouraging is a survey by the healthcare technology and research firm CapSite, from its 2010 Ambulatory EHR and Practice Management Study, finding that among 2,000 practices surveyed, the most important reason driving EHR purchases is the goal of making them more efficient, and not just the HITECH incentives.

This shows that it’s important to look beyond the incentives to the modifications in workflows leading to the change process of best practices that are at hand. The incentives remain available for the next several years as October marks the beginning phase for hospitals, followed in January, 2011 for eligible professionals in ambulatory settings.

As that time goes by, trust that existing programs will extend and that new programs will commence, all aimed at a sustainable future of efficiency, time and cost savings, decreased errors and other clinical aspects leading to improved outcomes at the point of care backed by quality reporting.

For example, as the current Stage 1 menu set objectives become core elements of Stage 2 targeted for 2013, the ability to report claims and eligibility is also planned for inclusion, meaning that as PQRI and other incentives continue, the impact of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and other payer models will find their place in Meaningful Use or quality reporting measures meant to further standardize and incentivize healthcare delivery.

Also to be determined are the timeframes between future Meaningful Use stages and the effects that will have on the functionality upgrades on ICD coding and the effects of health reform, for example, which also need to be coordinated.

Together, the meaningful beginning we find ourselves addressing today is meant to continue to grow the increasingly meaningful and integrated and sustainable future of tomorrow.