Meaningful Use (MU)-How to Make sense of it All (Part 2)
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Core Measure Objective 1 Stage-2 differences to Stage 1
Covering each Core objective as well as the Menu Objectives and work our way to the Clinical Quality Measures (CQMs) is the goal of this and subsequent blogs.
Core Objective 1 Stage 1 is written as:
“Use CPOE for medication orders directly entered by any licensed healthcare professional who can enter orders into the medical record per state, local and professional guidelines.”
The measure for Stage 1 is:
“More than 30% of unique patients with at least one medication in their medication list seen by the EP have at least one medication order entered using CPOE.”
Exclusion for Stage 1:
“Any EP who writes fewer than 100 prescriptions during the EHR reporting period qualifies for an exclusion from this objective/measure”
Core Objective 1 Stage 2 is written as:
A“Use computerized provider order entry (CPOE) for medication, laboratory and radiology orders directly entered by any licensed healthcare professional who can enter orders into the medical record per state, local and professional guidelines.”
The measure for Stage 2 is:
“More than 60% of medication, 30% of laboratory, and 30% of radiology orders created by the EP during the EHR reporting period are recorded using CPOE.”
Exclusion for Stage 2:
“Any EP who writes fewer than 100 medication, radiology, or laboratory orders during the EHR reporting period.”
While this is not a new objective for Stage 2, it has been modified as you can see. In Stage 1 you basically only had to use CPOE for medication orders and that was only for 30% of the unique patients and that was only ordering one medication for that patient.
In Stage 2, the criterion has been significantly increased. For medication orders they need to be completed on at least 60% for medications, 30% for laboratory and 30% for radiology.
Also you will notice that in the exclusion, for stage 2 the wording has been included to be sure to add laboratory, and radiology.
The thought process of raising the bar during Stage 2 is of course to expand the implementation of data that is being recorded electronically. Since you have already established a work flow for this one area in Stage 1, it will not be difficult to implement the other areas since you already have worked out the work flow for the medications in Stage 1.
The benefits of progression with Stage 2 and adding more criteria to the objectives is a result that providers and staff will better access to much more complete and accurate information, they will not have to look in multiple programs or look in the “paper chart” and scan it in to the EHR/EMR.
This information will be readily available within a few clicks of the mouse of everyone using the EHR/EMR. This is a major benefit for not only the providers and the staff of not having to search for that piece of paper and the provider doesn’t have to sign a paper copy. They can sign the orders and results electronically. This significantly decreases the chance of an order being lost in the shuffle, and YEAH!!! We might just be able to do away with logging each result in to a separate log book for tracking purposes.
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