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Here DrChrono.com University will discuss the specific Meaningful Use Criteria as it applies to both the Core Set and the Menu Set. The Core Set comprises 15 required criteria, and the Menu Set represents a menu of 10 criteria of which any 5 the physician may choose. Demonstrating meaningful use of at least 5 of these criteria in the Menu Set is compulsory. The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology has released its Initial Set of Standards, Implementation Specifications, and Certification Criteria for Electronic Health Record Technology. This program will assure the availability of certified EHR technology prior to the date on which health care providers seeking the incentive payments would begin to report demonstrable meaningful use of certified EHR technology. It is expected that the ONC will publish on their website a list of EHR technologies that meet the meaningful use criteria sometime this fall.

Here are the Stage 1 criteria Core Set for Eligible Professionals. The Menu Set will be found in DrChrono.com University’s next blog post.

CORE SET

The criteria are numbered, with the criteria themselves followed by a bulleted explanation of the measures that will be used to test the criteria.

1.     Use Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) for medication orders directly entered by any licensed health care professional who can enter orders into the medical record per state, local, and professional guidelines

• More than 30% of unique patients with at least one medication in their medication list seen by the Eligible Professional (EP) have at least one medication order entered using CPOE

2.     Implement drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction checks

• The EP has enabled this functionality for the entire EHR reporting period

3.     Generate and transmit permissible prescriptions electronically (eRx)

• More than 40% of all permissible prescriptions written by the EP are transmitted electronically using certified EHR technology

4.     Record demographics including preferred language, gender, ethnicity, race, and date of birth

• More than 50% of all unique patients seen by the EP have demographics recorded as structured data

5.     Maintain up-to-date problem list of current and active diagnoses

• More than 80% of all unique patients seen by the EP have at least one entry or an indication that no problems are known for the patient recorded as structured data

6.     Maintain active medication list

• More than 80% of all unique patients seen by the EP have at least one entry (or an indication that the patient is not currently prescribed any medication) recorded as structured data

7.     Maintain active medication allergy list

• More than 80% of all unique patients seen by the EP have at least one entry (or an indication that the patient has no known medication allergies) recorded as structured data

8.     Record and chart changes in vital signs including height, weight, blood pressure, BMI, and growth charts for children 2-20 years

• For more than 50% of all unique patients age 2 and over seen by the EP, height, weight, and blood pressure are recorded as structured data

9.     Record smoking status for patients 13 years and older

• More than 50% of all unique patients 13 years or older seen by the EP have smoking status recorded as structured data

10.   Implement one clinical decision support rule relevant to specialty or high clinical priority along with the ability to track compliance of that rule

• Implement one clinical decision support rule

11.   Report ambulatory clinical quality measures to CMS or the States

• For 2011, provide aggregate numerator, denominator, and exclusions through attestation
• For 2012, electronically submit the clinical quality measures

12.  Provide patients with an electronic copy of their health information (including diagnostic test results, problem list, medication lists, medication allergies), upon request

• More than 50% of all patients of the EP who request an electronic copy of their health information are provided it within 3 business days

13.  Provide clinical summaries for patients for each office visit

• Clinical summaries provided to patients for more than 50% of all office visits within 3 business days

14.  Capability to exchange key clinical information (for example, problem list, medication list, medication allergies, diagnostic test results), among providers of care and patient authorized entities electronically

• Performed at least one test of certified EHR technology’s capacity to electronically exchange key clinical information

15.  Protect electronic health information created or maintained by the certified EHR technology through the implementation of appropriate technical capabilities

• Conduct or review a security risk analysis and implement security updates as necessary and correct identified security deficiencies as part of its risk management process

The ONC is currently in the process of receiving applications to approve of temporary certification organizations, and they plan to compile a list of certified EHR technologies so that physicians can begin the process of shopping for their new EHR. This list is expected to be available this fall.

DrChrono.com, and its iPad EHR platform are guaranteed to meet Meaningful Use Criteria.

It is the purpose of DrChrono.com University to keep you up to date with the latest information revolving around Meaningful Use so that all clinicians who utilize DrChrono.com’s iPad EHR will smoothly transition to a better, brighter, and patient-centered EHR system that will notably enhance the lives of practicioners and patients alike. The information posted on this blog is applicable only to Eligible Professionals, not Eligible Hospitals or Critical Access Hospitals. Stay tuned for weekly to biweekly updates.