Chicago’s American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) has responded to the ONC definition of Meaningful Use.
AHIMA warns that with regard to engaging patients and families by providing clinical summaries for patients for each encounter, current EHRs may need to be modified:
We strongly support the goals behind this measure, however it is likely that EHR functionality and processes may require substantial modifications to make this a helpful practice for patients therefore, we recommend that the feasibility of requiring this in 2011 be studied and if supported, push for 2011 and if not feasible, push this to 2013.
In addition, AHIMA calls for HL7:
We recommend that you consider the HL7 standard, Continuity of Care Document, to serve as the patient summary which will contain a core data about the patient. We also encourage you to add a measure to share standards-based clinical summary information (e.g. CCD) at discharge, transfer or referral to support the effective exchange of information for individuals and patients who are moving within the care continuum.
