Most Meaningful Use Stage 2 core objectives don’t seem overly difficult to achieve. Recording changes in vitals, updating patients’ demographic information, and tracking tobacco use among patients 13 and older are relatively straightforward requirements that can be met by making minor adjustments to the practice management process.
However, a few of the mandatory core objectives have proven particularly challenging for providers trying to attest by the 2014 deadline.
We spoke with Michael Pepe, EHR project manager at CareCloud, to identify how practices can tackle the three trickiest Meaningful Use core objectives — CPOE, clinical summaries, and patient education
1. Use computerized provider order entry (CPOE) for medication, laboratory, and radiology orders directly entered by any licensed healthcare professional who can enter orders into the medical record per state, local and professional guidelines.
This objective changed drastically from its Stage 1 incarnation. Now, more than 60% of medication, 30% of laboratory, and 30% of radiology orders created by an EP during the recording period must be recorded using CPOE.
“The main problem with CPOE is order entry specifically,” said Pepe. “For Stage 2, the hurdle is that you really need to look for an EHR that has order sets.”
An EHR user shouldn’t have to continuously click through various screens to create an order. This increases the likelihood of errors and, in turn, physician frustration. Order sets allow you to build orders for similar diagnoses and treatments. This way, within similar situations, your order is basically complete with a single click of the mouse.
2. Provide clinical summaries for patients for each office visit.
In order to meet this objective, clinical summaries must be given to more than 50% of patients or patient-authorized representatives within one day of treatment.
According to Pepe, this is the most difficult objective to meet because workflow issues are usually at the root of problems.
“There’s a misconception that the provider actually has to have the note complete before printing out the summary,” said Pepe. “But as long as you’re updating the EHR […] you can go ahead and have the front desk person print out the most updated summary at checkout.”
Also, keep in mind the measure is encounter-based, not unique patient-based. So make sure to provide a clinical summary for each patient encounter, regardless of whether a single patient has visited multiple times.
3. Use clinically relevant information from Certified EHR Technology to identify patient-specific education resources and provide those resources to the patient.
The patient education measure for Stage 2 requires that 10% of all unique patients be provided with patient-specific education through a certified EHR solution.
Patient portals are the medium through which most EHRs distribute educational material, so convincing patients to access the portal is key to meeting this objective.
“I would start talking to patients about it now,” said Pepe. He suggests highlighting the portal’s benefits, with patient education being a main point of focus.
Don’t let any of these three Meaningful Use core objectives stand in the way of collecting your Meaningful Use incentive. It would be a tragedy to get so close to successful attestation only to be denied.
A version of this article was originally published on our sister site, Power Your Practice. Click here to read the original story.
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