Seeing the legislative process first hand I must admit that it’s a bit overwhelming to see the volume of legislation that they put out which is all done in this pretty cryptic legalese and full of pages of useless recaps and other fluff. I guess that’s why I found this abbreviated list of meaningful use criteria so nice:
The 15 core criteria, presented in an abbreviated format, are:
1. Use computerized physician order entry (CPOE);
2. Implement drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction checks;
3. Generate and transmit permissible prescriptions electronically;
4. Record demographics;
5. Maintain an up-to-date problem list of current and active diagnoses;
6. Maintain active medication list;
7. Maintain active medication allergy list;
8. Record, chart changes in vital signs;
9. Record smoking status for patients age 13 or older;
10. Implement one clinical decision support rule;
11. Report ambulatory clinical quality measures;
12. Provide patients with an electronic copy of their health information, upon request;
13. Provide clinical summaries for patients for each office visit;
14. Demonstrate capability to exchange key clinical information;
15. Protect electronic health information.
Five additional criteria, of the provider’s choosing, must be selected from a menu of 10 that include entering test results into an EHR as structured data, maintaining lists of patients with specific conditions, and submitting information to immunization registries electronically.
Each of the 15 criteria have their nuances that will need to be understood to meet meaningful use, but this is the type of list I think most providers would want to see to understand generally what the meaningful use criteria requires.