By Matt Rossini, JACO, Inc
As health systems and eligible healthcare professionals transition from Stage 1 to Stage 2 Meaningful Use to meet the 2014 reporting deadline, they are often faced with having to find innovative solutions to satisfy the new objectives and reporting requirements. Some of the core objectives of Stage 2 specifically address engaging patients with their medical records. For caregivers the challenge of utilizing Electronic Health Records (EHR) which is also often referred to as Electronic Medical Records (EMR) to document all of their clinical activities can be taunting enough. Adding processes that involve patient engagement to their already complex workflow activities can feel like an unattainable goal.
Stage 2 Meaningful Use Patient Access Objectives require healthcare providers to give patients the ability to view their health information online and to make records available for download and transmission to other caregivers. Today’s industry leading EHR software companies provide simple and secure patient portals to access health record information. They will work with their clients to develop patient discharge packages with detailed instructions on how patients can access their personal information. Now in a perfect world, every patient would return home and access their provider’s website, create a login and view their health records. As one can image, the percentage of patients taking the time to access their medical records is still very limited, yet some organizations are making some solid headway to improve results. Source
