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If healthcare providers started working for incentives in 2011, they would have acquired them as late as 2016. The qualification process, which may net as much as $63,750 for each professional, requires all practitioners to complete three steps over a period of at least five years.
Stage one is completed in the first three years of the program. It focuses on retrieving, saving, and sharing the pulled data. This includes digitizing all the relevant, previously handwritten or typewritten information. It may also include scanning certain charts, along with x-rays and laboratory tests.
Recording all patient history is not for the exclusive use of a single hospital; it will also send the same information to other related healthcare professionals upon request. Information exchange also occurs across specialists: cardiologists may be notified of their patients’ consultations with pulmonary specialists in neighboring health centers, and vice versa. Through this system, physicians will also be able to triangulate and coordinate prescriptions.
By stage two, these patient care summaries should not just be available to those who provide treatment; they must also be ready for patients upon their request. This requires practitioners to give e-prescriptions and integrate the latest laboratory results after patient visits.
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After two years, healthcare providers may move on to stage three. Here, they will be expected to run an efficient program with the use of EHRs. They must operate ‘population health management’ with stability, while continuing to grant patients access to their own information.
For healthcare providers, going digital comes with a hefty price. Funds are funneled toward software purchase and acclimatizing healthcare professionals to the environment of digital records and network systems. The process, which takes half a decade at the minimum to complete, may seem daunting for medical practitioners– all of whom are simultaneously attending to their patients. Though the added 'Meaningful Use' incentive encourages timely participation, some wonder if the tens of thousands of dollars in cost are worth the time.
In any case, digital records seem to be the next practical step and, in line with the generalized use of smartphones and tablets, a welcome catch-up strategy for the current system. Documenting progress throughout five years not only yields monetary gain, it also leaves healthcare providers with an abundance of data they can use to improve their service.
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TSI Healthcare is committed to easing physicians into the use of technology in their everyday work. This website provides more information about how this integration is achieved.
