Meaningful use

Medscribbler meaningful use compliance

Meaningful use is just one part of the puzzle in the requirements for collection of the up to $44,000 over five years of available Stimulus funds. Simply; for a provider to collect funds, a “certified” EMR must be used in a meaningful way that allows measurement and reporting of the meaningful use to government. Currently, meaningful use has been more or less defined. Certification and reporting infrastructure has still yet to be fully developed. For certification the National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIST, will be developing tools for testing for certification bodies. The tools they will be providing are instructive as to what constitutes “meaningful use.” One of their charts, shown right, summarizes the Stimulus funds meaningful use program requirements.

Test method rollout schedule

Waves are used to represent years as we have obviously missed the deadlines as the Stimulus bill was written. The NIST will not perform EMR product certification, but will provide the tools that can be used by “recognized” certification bodies. There are currently no tools available, nor any recognized certification bodies, nor is there currently any mechanism to recognize these envisioned bodies. Further infrastructure to actually submit reports on meaningful use to collect funds is still very much in the planning stages.

Data generation for meaningful use is still the responsibility of the provider. While the EMR may need to be certified the provider is the one to input the data to reach the qualification levels. Using an EMR that is certified but is difficult to use, resulting in not inputting data into the EMR in the "meaningful" way, will result in not qualifying for funds. The original idea behind "meaningful use" was to force providers to actually use older, legacy EMRs that many purchased but did not use fully.

Medscribbler has innovated beyond just an EMR and is an intelligent clinical processor that mimics the familiar paper input method but uses new technology to generate the deep and complex data generated in a clinical setting. Medscribbler produces an electronic medical record by focusing on the provider and the clinical processing of information. As a result whatever the final government requirements, Medscribbler is the intelligent choice for discerning providers.

Test method rollout schedule

Medscribbler currently meets all of Wave 1, the first year. It will meet all of Wave 2, year two, when discharge information parameters are more finely defined. Medscribbler currently meets or has the foundation to meet all of Wave 3, year three. There are some items in this third Wave, like “exchange clinical information,” that have security and privacy issues that have not been resolved in law yet. Wave 4 assumes the government develops or legislates many items not yet available, ie the standardization and rationalization of electronic access to public health immunization registries. Medscribbler as an intelligent dynamic clinical processor will easily meet any requirement as it becomes defined in law.

Indeed, the American Hospital Association submitted a letter to the CMS stating the proposed "meaningful use" requirements for EMR adoption is unrealistic for many health care providers, particularly solo and small practice providers. Further, the letter states no current EHR system is capable of meeting all of the meaningful use objectives. Scriptnetics with its clinical processor, Medscribbler, is more than a static EMR, Medscribbler produces an electronic medical record. It is a clinical processor, providing the solo and small practice a solution that is both practical and profitable with the opportunity to collect Stimulus funds as the definitions develop.