How Virtual CD Helps Solve Main Meaningful Use Challenges.

Meaningful Use, as you are probably already well aware, is a Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive program that is supposed to help improve patient care while giving the government assurances that facilities getting federal money are actually deserving of it. As rural providers worked to meet requirements of Stage 1, it became clear that financial issues were going to be prevalent. Also, rural providers struggle with finding qualified personnel to get them through the process.

Healthcare professionals are to show they’ve met goals in Stage 1 of Meaningful Use by hitting all 18 objectives, including 13 core objectives and five menu objectives from a list of nine. Eligible hospitals must meet 11 core objectives and five from a list of 10. To meet them all, rural providers are going to need a solution that helps them overcome personnel and funding issues.

There are more than 2,000 rural hospitals that qualify as critical access providers. By July 31, 2013, around 65 percent of them had met meaningful use criteria for Stage 1. According to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, only 27 percent of critical access hospitals are fully electronic. Sixty-two percent are partially electronic and partially paper, and 11 percent say they have no electronic health records at their facility.

The report says the biggest challenges are related to EHR implementation costs, workflow changes and security/privacy risks. Around 27 percent said they didn’t have the trained professionals in their region to help implement EHR practices. Despite these challenges, nearly half of the rural providers said they had met objectives for Stage 1 by early 2013. However, there are still stages 2 and 3 to look forward to.

The biggest problem in the upcoming stages concerns a focus on having radiologists provide an electronic report to be filed within 24 hours of an exam. This means the 11 percent of facilities that have no EHR in place are going to be significantly challenged.

Many rural providers are using compact discs to archive and share medical images. However, with virtual CD technology, these providers only need access to the Internet and they can share their images with anyone while also storing their images in the cloud. Because rural providers are so strapped for talent in their regions they need a solution that requires little to no IT expertise, which is what a virtual CD solution offers. The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives said smaller hospitals have put aside their competitive differences to work together and find a way around their shortcomings.

OffSite Image Management, Inc., can offer Virtual CD to rural clients, giving them an opportunity to meet Meaningful Use requirements without all the headaches. To learn more about Virtual CD and how your facility can get connected, contact us today.