Prescriptives from the Consulting Cabinet 2012, Vol. 1

Welcome to the first Prescriptives from the Consulting Cabinet.

Prescriptives is my way of communicating to you timely and relevant information regarding healthcare issues and trends in order to help you address challenges and capitalize on opportunities. This is not a one way street but rather a dialogue to help us all learn and become better at what we do, so please ask questions and make comments.

Also, please engage with me on Twitter at irabedenbaugh or on LinkedIn. Through these channels, I routinely share additional thoughts on healthcare and leadership.
Enjoy this first issue which focuses on Meaningful Use.
-Ira

Six Helpful Hints for Meaningful Use
While providers of electronic health records make the meaningful use requirements seem simple to meet, I am sure that you have quickly realized that it can be a challenge. During the past several months, I have helped prepare several clients to start their attestation period on January 1. From these experiences, I have a handful of helpful hints to pass along to you.

Train your team. A physician cannot meet the requirements of meaningful use by him or herself; rather the entire office needs to be part of the process. Do not skimp on training time for both the clinical and non-clinical staff, as the time spent training will facilitate their buy-in, their help and their ideas.

Simplify. Too often practices make meaningful use more complicated than it really is. Do not over think; instead understand what is being asked and meet that requirement. Do not do more than is required unless your efforts bring tangible value to the practice. You can ramp up the use of your electronic health record as you become more proficient.

Capture smoking and ethnicity data. These two components can cause hiccups for different reasons in the meaningful use process. Smoking status causes problems because not all subspecialties are used to recording this information, and even those that are documenting smoking status are not in the habit of asking their 13-year year old patients. In addition, not capturing a patient’s ethnicity will result in a zero on demographics. This is a new requirement for most practices, as there has never been a need to capture this data, therefore, physicians and staff must devise a process and a tool to do so.

Change operational flow. To maximize the use of your electronic health record, the paper way will not work in the electronic office. You must change your operational flow and levels of responsibility to maximize the system. If not, the provider will become a high priced data entry clerk.

Review your reports. As you are preparing to start your attestation period, you must go through a trial run, reviewing your meaningful use reports on a weekly basis. If you are not exceeding the required thresholds, you must modify your processes until you are easily meeting the threshold requirements. If you are starting your yearly attestation period, it is imperative that your meaningful use reports are reviewed monthly, if not weekly. If you get “behind the curve” on some of the thresholds, it can be difficult to catch up.

Assess costs. Before you invest in an electronic health record, understand that the cost is more than just the software. In addition to the software costs, you can have hard costs associated with hardware and maintenance and soft costs associated with patient volume and impact on everyone’s personal time. Do your due diligence and make the correct decision for your practice.

Ira Bedenbaugh
As chair of Elliott Davis’ Medical Consulting Practice, Ira assists physician practices and hospitals with their strategic initiatives, daily financial management and operational needs. A frequent speaker with more than 13 years of experience in the medical consulting field and 10 years in practice administration, he understands the inner workings, external pressures, challenges and opportunities that practices face.

Phone: 864.552.4715 | Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)