MMRGlobal, Inc. (fka MMRF)

[tbone1360]

Meaningful Use Stage 3 Draft On The Way

Well, it looks like we’ve got a new set of MU regulations afoot. Though we don’t even have a final version of Meaningful Use Stage 2 regs in place yet, HHS apparently plans to issue Meaningful Use Stage 3 draft regulations sometime in August.

According to HealthcareInformatics, ONC plans to make sure Stage 2 and Stage 3 square by September or October of this year. (Why it would make sense to issue Stage 3 now, before Stage 2 has even been field tested, is a question clearly for wiser heads than my own. To me it just doesn’t make sense…)

The magazine reports that the core of Meaningful Use Stage 3 recommendations is likely to be as follows. It says providers and hospitals will be asked to have an EMR in place which:

• Tracks individual care goals;
• Records care team members, their roles, and their contact information across care settings;
• Tracks tasks/steps and responsible party;
• Feeds population health management;
• Facilitates reconciliation of medications, problem lists, goals, and plan of care; and
• Allows for input and viewing by all care team members, the patient and their caregivers.

And it says that potential measures would be:

• A platform for collaborative care exists and is being used for at least 20 percent of patients.
• Receiving care team members in a care transition access information for at least 10 percent of patients having an active collaborative care plan.

To me, the idea of having two other sets of MU standards swimming around out there when people are still struggling with Stage 1 is not a smart move. But hey, given all the delays in getting standards out there, maybe we should just be glad that they’re getting done!

http://www.hospitalemrandehr.com/2012/08/09/meaningful-use-stage-3-draft-on-the-way/