Meaningful Use Measures:  More on Recording Vital Signs – Meaningful Use Monday

To follow up on The “All 3” Vital Signs Dilemma and the posted comments, I want to provide some clarification regarding the vital signs measure and correct some common misconceptions about the requirements: 

Meaningful Use Core Measure: Record Vital Signs
For more than 50% of all unique patients age 2 and over seen by the EP, height, weight, and blood pressure are recorded as structured data. 

  1. The Exclusion: A physician who does not currently track height, weight, and blood pressure does not have to start taking vital signs solely for the purpose of meeting meaningful use. The point I made in last week’s post was that the exclusion may be difficult for some providers to take advantage of due to the “all 3” requirement—but it is available for those who attest that “all 3 vital signs have no relevance to their scope of practice.” A psychiatrist, for example, could likely attest to this exclusion; and the exclusion would satisfy the measure. 
  2. The physician (or staff) does not have to record the vital signs at each patient visit. It is up to the physician’s discretion how frequently—on a patient-by-patient basis—this clinical information should be updated.  
  3. In fact, the measure does not even require that the data be entered during the reporting period. It only requires that the vital signs be in the EHR charts (of 50%) of the patients who were seen during the reporting period. This means that the data could already be there from a past visit—even a visit that occurred prior to the reporting period. 
  4. The physician (or staff) does not have to be the source of the vital signs data. It can come from another provider or directly from the patient—electronically, on paper, entered through a portal, or in any other way. 

Regarding last week’s comments….I wholeheartedly agree that meaningful use should not be the predominant reason for a provider to adopt an EHR. An EHR should be implemented based on of its ability to deliver benefits related to practice efficiency, physician productivity, and quality of care. With the right EHR, these benefits will far exceed the potential $44,000 incentives.

Lynn Scheps is Vice President, Government Affairs at EHR vendor SRSsoft. In this role, Lynn has been a Voice of Physicians and SRSsoft users in Washington during the formulation of the meaningful use criteria. Lynn is currently working to assist SRSsoft users interested in showing meaningful use and receiving the EHR incentive money. Check out Lynn’s previous Meaningful Use Monday posts.

About the author

Lynn Scheps

Lynn Scheps is Vice President, Government Affairs at EHR vendor SRSsoft. In this role, Lynn has been a Voice of Physicians and SRSsoft users in Washington during the formulation of the meaningful use criteria. Lynn is currently working to assist SRSsoft users interested in showing meaningful use and receiving the EHR incentive money.

1 Comment

  • The next question from anyone who must prove themself as a meaningful user should be, “Where does is say this?”

    This sounds great, but a physician (or someone consulting) will need reference to “prove” the above is true.

Click here to post a comment
   

Categories