“I think that speaks a lot to how on target we are at bringing meaningful use into the spectrum of what’s good for the public. Now we have the data about how right on this initiative is,” he said. In mission-driven organizations where the patient is the focus, people don’t see meaningful use measure as off target but rather part and parcel with the work, Calman added.

Paul Tang, MD, policy committee vice chair and chief innovation and technology officer at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, said he was encouraged that the financial issue, which used to be the number one barrier, is no longer the top challenge for physicians. 

From the meaningful use attestation data, providers reported that few patients know at this point that they can request an electronic copy of their health information, Anthony said. When they have asked, however, physicians are providing their information at a very high rate, though a large number of physicians are putting off the objectives for electronic access to information and patient education resources.

Providers generally hold the same popular and least popular menu objectives for meaningful use each month, he said. Besides the required measures, the most popular menu objectives for physicians are drug formulary, immunization registries and generating patient lists. For hospitals, it’s advance directives, drug formulary and clinical lab test results. The least popular menu measures for physicians are the transitions of care summaries and patient reminders; for hospitals, it’s the transitions of care summaries and reportable lab results.

As of November, 117,284 have attested successfully and 230 unsuccessfully at first and later 214 resubmitted successfully, Anthony said. Among hospitals, all 2,558 that attested did so successfully.