EHR Meaningful Use: Regulations Will Benefit All, With Time

CANOGA PARK, Calif., Aug. 27, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Physician dissatisfaction with EHR systems remains stubbornly high, according to the latest surveys by the American Medical Association/AmericanEHR Partners, and Black Book Market Research. The AMA survey found that 72% of EHRs made it difficult or very difficult for doctors to decrease their workload. Physicians are rightly upset because Meaningful Use attestation is taking a major toll on the practice of medicine. The time devoted to repetitive clicking is time away from patient care, not to mention physicians' personal time. Studies have shown that the tasks required by many EHRs are stressful and demeaning for providers, putting them in the role of data-entry clerks, which at the point of care leads to unnecessary distraction and clinical error. 

However, placing blame on MU regulations is not the answer, says Richard Low, MD, CEO of Infor-med Corporation, the makers of the Praxis Electronic Medical Records. "The regulations are, for the most part, on-target and well-intentioned," he affirms. "The purpose of MU regulations is to lower the staggering cost of healthcare, increase cost-effectiveness, and improve disease prevention. These are all areas where medicine has failed us. We doctors are trained to evaluate one patient at a time and to provide the best possible care, with cost being secondary. And our entire medical profession is geared toward handling pathology, not health. The possibilities for analysis of patient population data from EHRs are extraordinary. This could have an immense impact on improving public health, but we EHR vendors need do it right," says Doctor Low.

As promising as the MU regulations are, the modifications put forth in the FLEX-IT 2 Act make sense, according to Doctor Low. Delaying stage 3 rulemaking until at least 2017 gives time for stage 2 regulations to be completely ironed out before moving on. Quality Measure Reporting Harmonization streamlines the current MU requirements, eliminating redundancy. The expansion of hardship exemptions is only fair. Attestation should be as easy as possible for doctors. "The proposed changes are simply common sense revisions that bring MU more in line with reality," Doctor Low explains. "Nothing is done perfectly on the first attempt."

Doctor Low praises the Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology for giving EHR vendors the space to develop software. "To their immense credit, the Federal Government has not attempted to micromanage EHR development," says Low. "We are learning directly from our physician-users how to do it right. It should be up to us EHR vendors to learn how to implement MU regulations in our systems to ease the burden on our doctors." Doctor Low believes that a few EHRs will be able to accomplish this, in time.  The FLEX-IT 2 Act will provide the space to ensure that MU regulations are integrated into EHR systems without causing havoc for doctors and patients.

About Praxis EMR

Praxis EMR, founded in 1989, is an innovator of Electronic Medical Record software, serving thousands of physician-users. The ICD-10 deadline is approaching; Click Here to prepare, and start saving 2-3 hours a day. Follow us @PraxisEMR or contact Oliver Hager at (800) 985-6016 or [email protected].

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