by
Lisa Chamoff, Contributing Reporter | May 15, 2014
From the May 2014 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
However, says Mangrum, there is still uncertainty as to the long-term financial effects of Meaningful Use compliance.
“For example, we still do not know what the stage 3 requirements are going to be so we are having difficulty planning for the future,” Mangrum says. “We are trusting that the government will propose stage 3 requirements that are not too financially burdensome, while at the same time time yielding positive patient care results.”
Mangrum says that irrespective of financial gains, the reason his colleagues are complying with the program is that they see an opportunity to improve patient care.
Dr. Satish Mathan, president of Raleigh Radiology, which also uses an Imaging Elements EHR system, says some of the Meaningful Use requirements have been difficult to apply to their daily practice.
“We have had to use existing technology and integrate that in a way so that the Meaningful Use guidelines and criteria are met without disrupting our patient throughput and workflow,” Mathan says. “We want to minimize the impact on the patient experience as we go through these steps. It’s caused us to interact more directly with the patients on some other levels, which is actually more refreshing for the patients and the radiologist.”
Mathan says it’s too early to tell, for example, whether getting a patient’s smoking history will eventually lead to regular CT scans to detect lung cancer.
“In theory, all these applications of technology would help prevent patients from falling through the cracks,” Mathan says. “Meaningful Use is the foundation toward that goal.”
Imaging Elements’ Cooke believes that Meaningful Use provides an opportunity for radiologists to more directly engage with patients. It’s up to the radiology practice to define the kinds of reminders they wish to send out. For example, if a woman comes in for a chest X-ray, if she’s within the age range for regular mammograms, they can send her a reminder when it’s time for her to come in for the test, he says.
Dr. Safwan Halabi, director of imaging informatics at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, a 900-doctor medical group that is planning on attesting to stage 1, says it’s been interesting to see the back-and-forth about whether radiology qualifies.
“I think the whole premise behind Meaningful Use is to get data for a long-term look at how patients are interacting with the health care systems,” Halabi says. “If that information is captured, I think it is a benefit to health care in general. Does it make sense for us to ask about a smoking history when a patient is coming in for an ankle X-ray? Probably not. We’re protecting public health in the long term.”
