What Do Telemedicine, Distance Learning and EHRs Have in Common?
If you work in a health care organization, you might be sick of hearing about “meaningful use,” but it’s probably a new term to many who are on the receiving end of health care.
The American Relief and Recovery Act (ARRA) offers billions in incentives to hospitals and clinics to invest in health information technology (HIT) and achieve its meaningful use. That’s a lot of words that basically mean if they spend money they make money and in the process, improve public health. Some of the criteria for meaningful use involve quality and efficiency, communication with patients and families, care coordination, and privacy and security for health care information.
One high-priority area is electronic health record (EHR) systems. I had an “ah-ha” moment about this yesterday when I went to my doctor’s office. While I was waiting for her, I scanned the flyers on the walls. You know those black-ink-on-colored paper announcements? You never know when one might actually apply to you. It said that the clinic was in the process of implementing an EHR system. Bingo, a synchronistic moment given that ACT Conferencing is sponsoring a networking break at an upcoming Institute for Health event in Denver. The agenda headliner? Meaningful use and EHRs.
Qualified EHRs can earn reimbursements – as much as $44,000 per physician over a five-year period. There’s a checklist of things that qualify an EHR, but a couple of things jumped out at me. E-prescribing and electronic health information exchange. At the end of my doctor’s appointment, I had a live demo of e-prescribing, almost. It didn’t work because my pharmacy wasn’t in the clinic’s system. So I had to take the paper prescription, drop it at the pharmacy, come back later and wait, and wait. With the electronic health information exchange, I can authorize my providers to exchange my medical information electronically. Know how long it would take me to give up photocopying records or carrying CDs around? About two seconds.
ARRA also sets aside $2.5 billion for grants, loans and loan-grant combinations for distance learning, telemedicine and broadband implementation in rural areas. Neither telemedicine nor distance learning are new in health care, but when the infrastructure and conferencing solutions are in place, many more people will have access to health information and health care services.
Google “ARRA health care” or “ARRA meaningful use” if you want to learn more. And this AMA article can get you up to speed on telemedicine.
Sometimes it takes a little thing, like a new phrase or a well-timed flyer, to get us to pay attention to something. Billions for health care is worthy of our attention.