8. Using patient portals. Under new meaningful use rules, a physician’s office must provide clinical summaries to patients within three business days of the visit, and printing and mailing the summary is a costly option. “One cost-effective alternative is to install a patient portal,” said Dean. “It’s a Web-based application that allows patients to interact with their providers. Many, but not all, certified EHRs come with patient portals.” He added when a practice installs a portal, staff can upload the clinical summary to the web site to be viewed by the patient. “Note the current meaningful use standards don’t require patients read or download the clinical summary,” he said. “It just needs to be ‘provided,’ generally interpreted as sent electronically.” 

9. Incorporating mobile technology. “Clearly, use of tablets and smartphones will increase,” said Dean. “For practice managers, the challenge will be to integrate there devices safety and securely into the EHR.” A recent survey found many physicians are interested in owning tablets because of the ability to download patient data. The report also found that top concerns for physicians were patient safety, physician liability, and lack of reimbursement for time spent using the technology. “As noted earlier, EHRs available through SaaS offer the advantage of storing data remotely,” said Dean. “If a device is lost or stolen, no data is disclosed.” 

10. Sharing data with HIEs and ACOs. According to Dean, HIEs are a key technology component of ACOs because they enable sharing of patient data, including lab results, prescriptions, and care summaries online. “Although there are 75 fully operating, multi-stakeholder HIEs around the country, the number is expected to significantly increase,” he said. “With the introduction of the National Health Information Network (NHIN) Direct, physicians with advanced EHRs can exchange clinical data with little difficulty.” Moreover, he said, advanced EHRs can be configured to accept direct messaging without creating interfaces or buying additional software.

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