Meaningful Use Stage 2, measure 7, part 2 states that “More than 5% of unique patients seen during the reporting period must view, download their health information or transmit to a 3rd party.” What makes this so different is that all of the measures so far have required the practice to change their methods but this one goes further and requires the patients to change.
Ladies and gentlemen,thisis where Meaningful Use gets fun. Someone got it right on this one. We are talking patient engagement to the Nth degree. Fantastic! Granted, it might be better if it specified a percent, rather than just “more than 5%” but at least we’re going in the right direction.
Recently I’ve been learning about “integrative healthcare” and while I’ve been following the patient engagement movement for some time, something clicked when listening to Dr. Wiel talk about integrative healthcare. Integrative healthcare to me is the merging of Meaningful Use, with actual healthcare. Integrative care takes into account the entire body, mind, and spirit for what I think of as “uberhealth.” Meaningful Use takes all of that to an intellectual level in an effort to make patients be more responsible for their health.
I love this. As parents of young kids, I am shocked daily by the lack of responsibility that I see—from the guy that takes up two parking spaces and doesn’t care, to the homeless drug addicted parent living in a car with two small children; and I truly strive to teach my own children responsibility. Imagine a world where people are responsible for their health—not merely relying on doctors and pharmacies to make everything right.
This Meaningful Use measure, when it works, could easily snowball into other areas of responsibility. If I am accountable for my health, which I personally am more so now that I am seeing that Naturopathic doctor I talked about in my previous blog, I am more likely to do things like exercise, which for me equates to more energy and that equates to joy, and that equates to working harder and being a better parent and that affects those around me. Those people then are energized by my presence (ya, that sounds kind of lofty, but really) and with a little luck and time, I will use the new brilliant me to encourage and teach others about joy and responsibility and health. Yay me.
So, while this is a business and a business blog, we are real people and we all affect each other, sometimes in ways we don’t realize. And as a champion for Meaningful Use—certainly because, in all honesty, it is helping grow our company, and also because of my previous mentioned excitement and joy—I want to share some good sides of this sometimes crazy and stressful endeavor that doctors and hospitals and in fact, patients, now face.
And what business blog would be complete without a quick note about how awesome our products are?
InphoniteVoice helps providers meet Meaningful Use by sending a little nudge to patients to remind them to engage, to “view, download their health information or transmit to a 3rd party.” So while you don’t actually have control of who uses
