Read Part 1: Adopt Certified Technology Read Part 3: Connect Externally
Health IT is evolving to create a collaborative management of the patient’s health involving both the physician and the patient. To help patients in this important task, applications such as web patient portals give patients access their health records remotely and securely so they can communicate and share information with their providers. The theory behind this change, as far as Meaningful Use is concerned, is that better communication will lead to improved quality of care and improved outcomes.
This drive for better care communication is driven in large part by incentives included in the Affordable Care Act, such as those offered to Accountable Care Organizations, but also by Meaningful Use and its view, download and transmit requirement. This portion of Stage 2 states that patients must have the ability to view online and download their medical records for personal use and also have the ability to electronically transmit their health information to other providers.
A patient database, whether it be a clinical data repository (CDR) or a data warehouse, consolidates data in real time using Corepoint Integration Engine from a variety of clinical sources to present a unified view of a single patient. This patient database – either a standalone repository or an existing EHR database – stores data from various applications so that it can be accessed and processed by clinical applications in the workflow of patient care.
Typical data stored within a patient database include: clinical laboratory test results, patient demographics, pharmacy information, radiology reports and images, pathology reports, hospital admission, discharge and transfer dates, ICD-9/10 codes, discharge summaries, and progress notes.
Patient databases are translational or analytical databases that allow users to perform a significant amount of data analysis and reporting. While some analysis and reporting can be done from any database, very complex analyses on large quantities of data will significantly slow down a typical repository.
Clinical decision technology enhances patient databases by compiling information from more than one disparate application, which is required to present a truly unified view of a patient’s care. Additionally, some databases include pointers to documents and images that are stored in other locations due to size, processing, or the desire to keep a single file copy. The model of the database can be adjusted to accommodate various workflow preferences in a healthcare setting.
View-Download-Transmit
Meaningful Use requires that more than 50% of all unique patients seen by eligible professionals are provided online access to their health information within four business days. MU also requires that 5% or more of all patients seen by the physician actually accesses their health information online.
Corepoint Health customers successfully meet this requirement by providing patient data to various patient-facing portals using Corepoint Integration Engine. Customers transmit required Consolidated CDA files to the patient portal using the engine, and they provide patients the ability to transmit their data from the portal using Direct Project protocol, as required by Meaningful Use.
Up Next — Stage 3: Connect Externally
You can also download the full whitepaper (pdf): What are the High Level Goals of Healthcare Interoperability?
