"I used Amazing Charts from the day I opened my practice in 2005 and am very happy with it."

— Marc Sopher, MD, Exeter NH

 

The Meaningful Use Criteria

On July 13, 2010, the ONC issued its final ruling on Meaningful use stage I. Those who want to read the painfully dense, 276-page document as published in the Federal Register can find the entire ruling here.

The good news? Amazing Charts has spent tons of time (which is one of the main reasons our Practice Management module hasn't yet been released) and money (which is why our price increased last year), deciphering this painful mess of rules and regulations, and we have built a solution - our  Meaningful Use Wizard™ that is seamlessly built into Amazing Charts V6.

The Meaningful Use Wizard™ reminds, tracks, and calculates what is required to meet Meaningful Use, and then can generate the reports to prove it. In a nutshell, here are the criteria required to meet the government's definition of Meaningful Use of an EHR:

You must attest to CMS that you have successfully meet all of the following 15 required "core" objectives for 90 consecutive days:

  1. Record patient demographics (including gender, race and ethnicity, date of birth, preferred language) at least 50% of the time.
  2. Record vital signs (height, weight, blood pressure, body mass index, and growth charts for children) at least 50% of the time.
  3. Maintain active problem lists at least 80% of the time.
  4. Maintain active medication lists at least 80% of the time.
  5. Maintain active medication allergy lists at least 80% of the time.
  6. Record smoking status for patients older than 13 years of age at least 50% of the time.
  7. Provide patients with a clinical summary for each office visit within 3 business days, at least 50% of the time.
  8. On request, provide patients with an electronic copy of their health information (including test results, problem lists, meds lists, allergies) within 3 business days, at least 50% of the time.
  9. Generate electronic prescriptions at least 40% of the time.
  10. Use e-prescription for medication orders at least 30% of the time.
  11. Implement drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction checks at least 40% of the time.
  12. Be able to exchange key clinical information among providers by performing at least one test of the EMR’s ability to do this.
  13. Implement one clinical decision support rule, and ability to track compliance with the rule.
  14. Implement systems that protect privacy and security of patient data in the EMR.
  15. Report clinical quality measures to CMS or states (PQRI).

 
You must also attest that you meet at least 5 of the following 10 "menu" set objectives:

  1. Drug-formulary checking
  2. Interface lab test results into the EHR
  3. Generate lists of patients by specific problems
  4. Provide patient-specific education at least 10% of the time
  5. Provide medication reconciliation between care settings, at least 50% of the time
  6. Provide summary of care record for patients transferred to another provider at least 50% of the time
  7. Submit electronic immunization data to local registries. At least one test.
  8. Submit electronic epidemology surveillance to public health agencies. At least one test.
  9. Send reminders to patients (per patient preference) for preventive and follow-up care, at least 20% of the time, or for over-65 year-olds or under=5 year-olds)
  10. Provide patients with timely electronic access (through a patient portal) to their health information, at least 10% of the time.

And you must accomplish all these using an ONC-ATCB Certified EHR (yes, Amazing Charts V6 is certified as a Complete EHR solution - in contrast to EHRs that are rated as "modular" and thus require additional software to allow you to reach the Meaningful Use requirements. )

Click to see Stage One meaningful use creteria
Stage One Meaningful Use Criteria