Meta Partners with Clients to Make Stage 2 EHR Deployment Meaningful
Garden City, NY (PRWEB) July 09, 2013 -- Meta has announced collaboration for stage two meaningful use with their EHR clients for the purpose of having them participate in the development of these features. The goal is to deliver features that not only will result in successful attestation for the attainment government stimulus funds, but to enhance the functionality demanded of the ARRA requirements.
The United States government, under provisions of the ARRA HITECH stimulus bill, has helped to greatly accelerate the deployment of electronic health records in health care enterprises. (EMC, 01/2011, http://www.emc.com/collateral/emc-perspective/h8574-ehr-adoption-ep.pdf) Thousands of facilities and practices, large and small, have taken advantage of government incentive funding to implement EHRs that were either delayed or not feasible previously because of prohibitive costs.
The goal of ARRA HITECH is to improve patient care through EHRs that can provide complete and more accurate patient records, improve access to information, and to empower patients to take a more active role in decisions affecting their health. Requirements to receive funding have been developed in phases, or stages. EHR Software vendors have had their products certified as meeting published standards. Many hospital administrators have been critical of meaningful use requirements in that the standards did not result in usable software that actually enhanced patient care. Nowhere in the certification process are usability or innovation evaluated. Many clinicians have been frustrated by adherence to meaningful use requirements that were cumbersome to use without an accompanying benefit to care.
Meta’s President and CEO, Sal Barcia described the process, stating “Working with customers to improve products is consistent with our approach to software development As part of our development of stage two requirements, we will be collaborating with multiple clients at once, with the challenge being the dialogue and decision making leading to consensus. Still and all we are thrilled that our clients are so willing to have strong input into this development cycle.”
Brent Richard, Director of Information Systems at Southern Ohio Medical Center in Portsmouth Ohio, said “This level of client collaboration is unusual in most software development efforts. Typically, the product is completed before clients have the opportunity to critique its usefulness in their respective workflows. Again, Meta has put the needs of the client first. Our development collaboration efforts have brought different perspectives to light which makes the EHR much more robust as it matures to a production version.”
Andrew Dick, CIO at Saline Memorial Hospital, added “Enhancements from the other software companies in my network are usually pushed to us in an update along with release notes. This is often the first we hear of the update. If the enhancement is new functionality, we often are forced to change our processes to accommodate the software enhancement.
“With Meta, we have the opportunity to be part of development. We have input to ensure the software will function well in our current environment. This strategy places the work on the front end, but we do not waste physician and clinician time with non-value added training and reworking of processes that were functioning before the enhancement. Focusing on the process rather than the software has enabled us to be part of developing a user friendly intuitive interface for the clinical staff, so they can spend more time on patient care.”
This process has been underway for several months and Meta clients will be working diligently with Meta to not only meet Stage two requirements, but make them meaningful for both clinicians and patients.
A. Krosofsky, Meta Healthcare IT Solutions, http://www.metacaresolutions.com, +1 516-488-6189 122, [email protected]
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