The electronic medical record (EMR) implementation incentives offered through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) are equally available to hundreds of specialists and subspecialists. Unfortunately, availability does not guarantee ease of access. Dr. John Halamka, a staunch advocate for meaningful use and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center CIO, admits that meaningful use compliance is harder for specialists. He likened the compliance obstacles to a square peg/round hole conundrum in his 2010 presentations, before stage 1 was finalized.

Some of the more obvious compliance challenges for specialists were outlined in a recent article by SearchHealthIT. The difficulties specialists face almost seem as numerous as there are specialties, ranging from theoretically being required to report on the smoking status of newborns to needing to show improved patient health in even the “sickest” of medical fields.

Those specialists who have found success in demonstrating meaningful use are offering guiding beacons to the rest who are struggling. The article particularly notes how essential it is to have a good relationship with the EMR vendor, especially for smaller practices. Beyond simply training on EMR use, the vendors can help resolve issues of non-compliance with CMS or adapt the EMR to the practice’s specific needs. Overall, the benefits in care and efficiency are well worth the trouble of EMR implementation; the incentives should be seen as an added bonus.

Read the full article here.