by : Shaun Sutner
Stasia Kahn, a physician in the Chicago suburbs, spent 100 hours attesting to meaningful use stage 2 requirements. Many were easy. Some were hard. She feels it was worth the work she invested in it.
This is the latest in an occasional series of meaningful use stage 2 attestation success stories. This installment features an eClinicalWorks customer.
Stasia Kahn, M.D., has always seen herself as an early adopter of new technologies, a techie who taught herself informatics and who takes pride in her blog: “EMR Survival: The Definitive Guide for a Digital Medical Practice.”
So in January 2014 when the race was on to attest to meaningful use stage 2 requirements, Kahn thought she’d get done by the end of the first quarter what many physicians imagine a pretty complicated and time-consuming process.
It wouldn’t happen quite that quickly, but the internal medicine doctor — who runs Symphony Medical Group, a busy, small practice in the Chicago suburbs — nonetheless finished attesting to 17 meaningful use core criteria and three measures from a “menu” of six more difficult criteria, including eight new categories new to stage 2, in six months. Maybe not record time, but pretty close.
Did I make money or lose money? It was just part of an overall strategy of excellence in healthcare. That’s the path I wanted to be on.
The work did, indeed, take a lot of her time, which Kahn squeezed in around tending to the 800 or so patients she cares for along with a part-time doctor, a medical assistant, an office administrator and some part-time help. There was no CIO or IT director to assist; she was it.
But it was well worth it, Kahn said.
“For me, the decision I made starting with stage 1 is that technology can make me a better doctor,” she said. “The decision to do this was a long-term investment on my part.”
