Health Providers Must Involve Patients in Health IT Use

Health care providers might not meet Stage 2 meaningful use rules unless they more actively engage patients about their role in the use of health IT, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers Health Research Institute report, InformationWeek reports.

Under the 2009 economic stimulus package, health care providers who demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHRs can qualify for Medicaid and Medicare incentive payments.

Report Details

The report was released Wednesday at the Healthcare Information and Management System Society’s annual conference in Orlando, Fla. (Mitchell, InformationWeek, 2/23).

For the report, PwC surveyed 1,000 U.S. consumers and more than 300 health care executives in fall 2010.

Key Findings

According to the report, 82% of the 300 health care executives surveyed expect their organization to achieve meaningful use before penalties go into effect in 2015, down from 90% in spring of last year (Merrill, Healthcare IT News, 2/23).

Bruce Henderson — director and national leader of the EHR and health information exchange practice at PwC — said hospitals will need to fold in patient input to efforts to comply with Stage 2 criteria of the meaningful use program. Stage 2 rules could require health care providers to offer patients more thorough access to online medical data, according to the report.

However, the report found that 30% of patients do not know why they would need to get their medical files electronically.

Henderson added, “Health systems need to have both patients and physicians actively using the health information to make care decisions, and they aren’t there yet” (Commins, HealthLeaders Media, 2/24).

Other Findings

The report also stated that patients are required to populate many commercial personal health records. According to PwC, integrating PHRs with a health care provider’s EHR system could remove that task from the patient and give health care providers more accurate patient information (vanSonnenberg, CMIO, 2/24).

In addition, the report found that:

• 66% of consumer respondents want physicians to use their electronic health care data to follow up on medical conditions;
• 50% obtain their health information by calling their health care provider and requesting a paper copy;
• 35% want their physicians to use their electronic medical information to monitor treatment compliance;
• About 25% want to be able to share electronic health data with family members to better understand medical histories; and
• 13% have been asked by their physicians for their thoughts about EHRs (Healthcare IT News, 2/23).

Comments

Henderson said, “There’s a lot of activity around meaningful use,” adding that “the industry is doing its best to understand and learn the value of these systems, the best way to implement them, and how to achieve positive results, but I’m not sure everyone fully understands their impact — intended or otherwise — and this is contributing to the lack of connecting with key stakeholders in the process” (InformationWeek, 2/23).

Source: iHealthBeat