Stage 3 Meaningful Use Draft Recommendations May Be Released in August

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT may release draft recommendations for Stage 3 of the meaningful use program by August, according to aniHealthBeat report.

During a July 3 meeting, members of the Health IT Policy Committee’s work group announced their plan to develop a Stage 3 draft by August so a request for comment could be released by November. According to the report, under Stage 3 electronic health record systems could be required to do the following:

• ❍   Receive and review patient immunization data from a public health registry.
• ❍   Receive clinical decision support on recommended immunizations based on a patient’s history.
• ❍   Electronically send reports on healthcare-associated infections and vaccine-related adverse events to appropriate public health agencies.

In addition, hospitals and healthcare providers could be required to use EHR systems to track individual healthcare goals; facilitate reconciliation of medications, problem lists, goals and care plans; and enable input and viewing by all care team members, caregivers and patients.

Source: www.beckershospitalreview.com; Kathleen Roney; July 11, 2012.