Stage 3 of Meaningful Use Recommendations Are Out and Your Feedback is Requested

Date: November 28th, 2012Category: CORHIO e-NewsletterTopics: Meaningful Use

CORHIO and Quality Health Network (QHN) are partnering to solicit input from Colorado stakeholders on the recommended Stage 3 Meaningful Use objectives.

The Health Information Technology Policy Committee (HITPC) has released their recommendations for Meaningful Use Stage 3. These recommendations build on previous objectives and target a collaborative care model with a patient-centric approach. It’s important to note that the recommendations represent the preliminary thinking of the HITPC and is not a formal proposed rule.

The recommendations for Stage 3 include some that are related to health information exchange (HIE). “While the committee appreciates and recognizes today’s challenges in setting up data exchanges, it is the committee’s recommendation that stage 3 is the time to begin to transition from a setting-specific focus to a collaborative, patient- and family-centric approach,” stated the report from the Health Information Technology Policy Committee.

CORHIO and QHN would like your feedback on the recommendations through an online survey. Comments will be consolidated and submitted to the HITPC on behalf of all respondents. We believe that your input as Colorado healthcare community member will be extremely valuable and will help us speak as a cohesive statewide community. This helps our voices be heard more than they would on an individual basis.

The Stage 3 recommendations include both updated and new measures. Here are a few highlights:

Updated Measures

  • Increased the requirements for CPOE to require more than 60% of medication, laboratory and radiology orders created by the EP or authorized providers of the eligible hospital’s or CAH’s inpatient or emergency department during the EHR reporting period are recorded using CPOE
  • Requirement to implement clinical decision support interventions increased from five to fifteen
  • More than 80% of all clinical lab test results ordered by the EP or authorized providers of the eligible hospital or CAH for patients admitted to its inpatient or emergency department during the EHR reporting period are incorporated in Certified EHR Technology as structured data
  • More than 10% of patients use secure electronic messaging to communicate with EPs, up from stage 2 requirement of 5%
  • The EP, eligible hospital or CAH that sites transitions or refers their patient to another setting of care (including home) or provider or care provides a summary of care record for 65% of transitions of care and referrals (and at least 30% electronically)
  • Hospital requirement to provide structured electronic lab results to ambulatory providers increased from more than 20% of electronic lab orders received to more than 80% of electronic lab orders received
  • For patients referred during an EHR reporting period, referral results generated from the EHR, 50% are returned to the requestor and 10% of those are returned electronically

New Measures

  • Bi-directional exchange capability to receive a patient’s immunization history supplied by an immunization registry, and to enable healthcare professionals to use structured historical immunization events in the clinical workflow
  • Add menu item to provide 10% of patients with the ability to submit patient-generated health information to improve performance on high-priority health conditions, and/or to improve patient engagement in care (e.g. patient experience, pre-visit information, patient created health goals, shared decision making, advance directives, etc.). This could be accomplished through semi-structured questionnaires, and EPs and EHs would choose information that is most relevant for their patients and/or related to high-priority health conditions they elect to focus on.
  • Provide patients with the ability to request an amendment to their record online (e.g., offer corrections, additions, or updates to the record) through a patient portal in an obvious manner

Please visit http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MUStage3Comments to provide your feedback on these recommendations. We request all feedback be received by Friday, January 4th. We will then send an email out to all responders for any additional input or clarifications.