I just bumped into this letter submitted as commentary to Congress from the "Healthcare Innovation Council" of Antheliohealth. The members are certainly more prominent than I, and while Antheliohealth is clearly in the business and hence potentially biased, they make very similar comments to those I made in the Health Affairs Blog post I linked to in my previous posting here. It is interesting that they used virtually the same title as I did (though I could not believe I somehow sent mine in as "The EHR Has No Clothes" and not "The EMR Has No Clothes"), without any attribution and, more importantly, without sending me a large check. But it could just be parallel evolution.
They went all the way to suggesting an end to the "Meaningful Use" program (I believe that is referred to in the trade as an act of MUtiny). I had wanted to do that in my HA Blog piece but figured that would make it truly unpublishable - and it was already an incredible thrash to finally get it published anywhere. And there is the issue of fairness - those adopting EHRs now are counting on the MU payments to help them cover the frequently obscene costs. Even I think that abruptly ending the program would be unfair and unwise. But there are, er, fair and balanced options that could be chosen. E.g., the MU Stage 2 rollout could be put on hold while the specifications could be revised to focus on truly meaningful use - helping providers deliver higher quality, more patient-centered care. One could even put a freeze on eligibility for MU incentives - e.g., no contracts for an EHR by an organization not already using a certified EHR signed after a specified date would be eligible for MU payments until the freeze was lifted when the new MU Stage 2 requirements were issued.
And I still don't understand the incredible resistance to adopting VistA. Sure, it needs installation and support, but all EHRs do, and the software licensing cost is $0, which leaves a lot of money on the table for installation and support. (I've offered to cover the entire software acquisition cost for my clinic if we dump NoxGen for VistA.) It actually has evidence for improving care and, for an enterprise-level EHR, is relatively well-liked.
But, I know, I know, it has no glitzy GUI and is written in that truly archaic language, MUMPS. As is Epic...
Ok, for you non-geeks who accidentally clicked on this, here's a picture of a white-breasted nuthatch in our backyard for your troubles (those are maple flowers in the tree):
They went all the way to suggesting an end to the "Meaningful Use" program (I believe that is referred to in the trade as an act of MUtiny). I had wanted to do that in my HA Blog piece but figured that would make it truly unpublishable - and it was already an incredible thrash to finally get it published anywhere. And there is the issue of fairness - those adopting EHRs now are counting on the MU payments to help them cover the frequently obscene costs. Even I think that abruptly ending the program would be unfair and unwise. But there are, er, fair and balanced options that could be chosen. E.g., the MU Stage 2 rollout could be put on hold while the specifications could be revised to focus on truly meaningful use - helping providers deliver higher quality, more patient-centered care. One could even put a freeze on eligibility for MU incentives - e.g., no contracts for an EHR by an organization not already using a certified EHR signed after a specified date would be eligible for MU payments until the freeze was lifted when the new MU Stage 2 requirements were issued.
And I still don't understand the incredible resistance to adopting VistA. Sure, it needs installation and support, but all EHRs do, and the software licensing cost is $0, which leaves a lot of money on the table for installation and support. (I've offered to cover the entire software acquisition cost for my clinic if we dump NoxGen for VistA.) It actually has evidence for improving care and, for an enterprise-level EHR, is relatively well-liked.
But, I know, I know, it has no glitzy GUI and is written in that truly archaic language, MUMPS. As is Epic...
Ok, for you non-geeks who accidentally clicked on this, here's a picture of a white-breasted nuthatch in our backyard for your troubles (those are maple flowers in the tree):
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