Like many other CIOs, timing is one of Christian's biggest concerns. "You've got to have the certification process, the certifying bodies identified along with the criteria, the vendors have to take a look at it and see where they're going to include that into their development cycles with the products they currently have. Can they be modified so you can get an upgrade to get the certified product? How long is that going to take them depending upon where they are [in the process], and then how long is it going to take me to get [on their schedule] to get that upgrade install? How long is it going to take to do the upgrade and incorporate those new features and functions and practices through the entire organization?

"I really hesitate to guess, but based upon CMS's guidelines fiscal year 2011, which starts October 1, 2010, we could actually, if we have 90 days of use that we can report on, we can actually attest to being a meaningful user. But right now, nobody knows really how we're going to do that."


In addition to being CMIO of one of the largest faith-based, non-profit health care systems in the country, Texas Health Resources' Ferdinand Velasco, M.D. is a member of and advisor to the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME). "The danger is that those in decision-making roles about how IT is used in health care organizations--whether it's a health system, hospital or physician practice - is that they let the promise of HITECH or the lure of incentive money distract them from what may already be a well thought-out, solid strategy for health care information technology," he stressed. "Let's say a health system is already in the process of selecting a software product. They have a well thought-out process for engaging their physicians and their other clinical team members in that selection process."

Velasco believes that the timeframe for reimbursements may lead some to bypass the step of involving the full team in the selection process.

"Or let's say you have a health system physician practice that already has selected the system. Are they going to rush things to try and meet meaningful use in the first one that becomes available as soon as they get incentive money? As a result, they may undermine the success that they would've achieved had they stayed with her original plan. I think that's a valid risk and a valid concern," Velasco admitted. "They should be doing a thoughtful readiness assessment, analyzing where the health care organizations today are relative to where they need to be to obtain their incentive money and plan accordingly rather than think about the money as the main driver."

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