Ambulatory providers overly optimistic about reaching MU

Although nearly 80 percent of ambulatory providers that have purchased an EMR are confident they will qualify for meaningful use (MU) in 2011, a closer look at what functionalities they have actually implemented reveals that most still have significant holes to fill, according to a KLAS report.

Over two thirds of the surveyed providers are not sharing medical records electronically with patients, and nearly half have not implemented clinical decision support (CDS) rules, two key MU requirements. The report, "Ambulatory EMR: A KLAS Guide to Meaningful Use Success," presents the results of interviews with 597 ambulatory providers using 25 different EMR systems. The study measured vendor performance in eight key MU areas: progress notes, drug-drug and drug-allergy alerts, CPOE, data mining tools, e-prescribing, CDS rules, patient electronic access to medical records, and viewing active medication, allergy, and problem lists. The report notes that Epic and Greenway customers appear best-prepared overall to qualify for MU incentives this year, with high usage and high clinician satisfaction in the key MU areas measured. Providers using Praxis, SRSsoft, simplifyMD, and LSS, however, appear the least prepared to qualify for MU in 2011.