Stephanie Diem-PA (general)
Washington Square Endoscopy CenterSupportBusiness
Summary: The commenter, a Clinical Director of a physician practice and ambulatory endoscopy center, supports the EHR incentive program but urges the agency to ensure that specialty-specific EHRs (like those for ambulatory surgery centers) are eligible for consideration. They argue that these specialized systems provide unique benefits for patient safety, infection control, and cost management.
As the Clinical Director of a physician practice I am excited about opportunities and incentives available to our practice related to our EHR. We have been using an EHR for two years and are continually expanding and improving our services through this technology. Our EMR is robust and interactive and I am confident will meet the Meaningful Use Requirements.
I also serve as Clinical Director of our ambulatory endoscopy center. We have been using a specialized EHR in our endoscopy center for eight years. This dynamic product has enabled our physicians to communicate more effectively with our patients and providers, improve patient safety, consistently meet regulatory standards, manage equipment, improve infection control surveillance, and lower costs while maintaining quality care. This product has proven to be such a valuable asset that I find it distressing, under the current requirements for "meaningful use", ASC specific EHRs may not be eligible for consideration. I strongly urge you to include these essential information systems for their unique contributions to "meaningful use" in the ambulatory surgery environment.
These are exciting times and all of us in healthcare have unprecedented opportunities to improve our services through technology. From personal experience, adoption of EHR improves the patient experience exponentially. Please consider the benefits specialty EHRs bring to the healthcare consumer as you continue to develop the EHR incentive plan.