AHRQ and HealthIT.Gov Post EMR Information

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has posted an Electronic Health Record (EHR)  primer for physicians and hospitals.  This primer provides guidance for providers in the use of EMRs.  The AHRQ’s mission:

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ) mission is to produce evidence to make health care safer, higher quality, more accessible, equitable, and affordable, and to work within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and with other partners to make sure that the evidence is understood and used.

The AHRQ primer references the Safety Assurance Factors for EHR Resilience (SAFER) guides, developed by HealthIT.gov, the official site for Health IT Information.  Because certified EHRs are part of CMS’ quality programs in FFS Medicare, the guides were developed to aid providers in the implementation and use of them.   

The SAFER guides provide  an additional resource for providers seeking information on EHRs.  The following SAFER guides are available:

·         High Priority Practice

·         Contingency Planning

·         System Interfaces

·         Computerized Provider Order Entry with Decision Support

·         Clinician Communication

·         Organizational Responsibilities

·         System Configuration

·         Patient Identification

·         Test Results Reporting and Follow Up

Finally, AHRQ has developed free CME (1 CME unit for American Board of Internal Medicine) and Medical Knowledge/Patient Safety credit (up to 45 MOC points).   There is a related CME program, The Hazards of Distraction: Ticking All the EHR Boxes available on the AHRQ site (registration required).

We hope this information is helpful.

California Physician Adoption of EHRs

A recent report by the California HealthCare Foundation, showed that 71% of physicians responding have an EHR in their main practice location.   That's great news, right?  Now for the bad news--only 30% of those physicians can meet 12 Stage 1 Meaningful Use objectives.

The study found that only 37% of the physicians plan to apply for either the Medi-Cal or Medicare incentives.

While the physicians may not meet the requirements (or choose to apply) to receive the $44,000 in incentive money, most physicians are happy with their EHRs --35% of respondents said they were very satisified with their EHR, 38% were somewhat satisfied.  The study found a link between the functionality available in the EHR and physician satisfaction.

The study provides recommendations for outreach to physicians by DHCS to help physicians meet the requirements for the Medi-Cal incentives.