Non-Profit Achieves Meaningful Use For In-House EMR

Most organizations hoping to achieve Meaningful Use milestones buy their way in, by acquiring certified technology from an established EMR vendor. However, there are still some organizations that are working to create in-house technology that meets Meaningful Use standards.

One such organization, the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative (MAeHC), recently achieved a nice win by meeting all three Meaningful Use Stage 2 requirements for its in-house-built EMR module, according to a report in Information Week. To meet certification criteria, modular EMRs must use the Quality Reporting Document Architecture Type 1 document to capture and input the data electronically.

MAeHC, a not-for-profit health IT organization, has created a modular EMR for clinical quality measurements (CQM) reporting, which the CCHIT certified to support Meaningful Use Stage 2, IW reports. The MAeHC product, which is hosted in the cloud, integrates with stand-alone EMRs and can span across multiple EMR platforms.

Getting certified was partly a matter of interpreting the criteria for Stage 2, which include capture and export, import and calculate and electronic submission, MAeHC execs told IW.

From the get-go, for example, the first criterion was problematic, as “capture and export” require EMRs to electronically record data and export it using established standards. MAeHC’s EMR has no user interface to manually key in data.

But the group’s leaders were determined to meet all three criteria, and they managed to get all of their issues sorted out. The MAeHC system is now certified for eligible providers and should be certified for eligible hospitals within the next few weeks, according to IW.

Looking at the challenges faced by those that blaze their own EMR trail, it’s interesting to note that two years ago, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center became the first hospital to have its entire home-brewed EMR certified as “complete” by the CCHIT. Considering the resources required, and the tough problems a group like MAeHC faced just to create one module, I’m not surprised that most of its hospital brethren have gone with packaged solutions instead.

About the author

Anne Zieger

Anne Zieger is a healthcare journalist who has written about the industry for 30 years. Her work has appeared in all of the leading healthcare industry publications, and she's served as editor in chief of several healthcare B2B sites.

   

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