Get the Best Health Information Exchange for Your Facility
Meaningful Use is something that’s been on the minds of radiologists and healthcare IT professionals for some time now. Stage 2 of Meaningful Use involves six new objectives, one of which involves sharing images. Unfortunately, many providers are having issues with this aspect of the regulation due in part to the fact that their medical imaging technology is built around proprietary architecture, making sharing a difficult task. However, the best health information exchange can address this issue.
The objective in Stage 2 says that images and the data that goes with it must be accessible through certified electronic health record technology. The objective also says that 10 percent of all scans and tests that are ordered by an eligible professional during an electronic health record reporting period must be accessible through certified electronic health record technology. Is your facility able to live up to this objective?
Why is this objective important? According to some healthcare IT professionals, it’s important because it assists with the overall care coordination between all healthcare professionals who are seeing the patient, thus preventing repetitive exams. The question is, how many facilities are capable of offering this type of coordinated care given the technology they currently have? Some providers are tasked with making sure their EHR system has the capability to share data.
Most vendors will have access to a picture archiving communication system (PACS), but not all PACS are able to communicate with other PACS due to the fact that they are engineered by different companies. A way around this problem is to look for the best health information system that uses cloud-based technology.
Some of the best health information exchange vendors are utilizing cloud-based technology to bring more facilities into compliance with Meaningful Use by easily integrating existing information stored on PACS into the cloud where they can be shared from facility to facility or from department to department without the usual roadblocks that occur when proprietary equipment is used.
Meaningful Use particularly burdens rural providers, some of which fall into the critical access category, because they don’t have the budgets to implement the necessary components that would make them compliant. However, when connected to the best health information exchange vendor that uses cloud-based technology, those budgetary constraints are a non-issue. Cloud-based technology can be offered at a much cheaper cost than on-premise solutions while also sidestepping the sharing issues that many on-premise solutions run into.
At OffSite Image Management, Inc., we utilize cloud-based technology to give you the access you need to comply with regulations while also giving the best patient care possible. Our services give you access to industry leading technology. Security, reliability and availability are all perks that you get on a daily basis. If you’ve been hampered by the process of sharing medical images among your staff or with professionals working out of other facilities, OffSite has a solution for you. Contact us today for more information.