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Should Canadian provinces be implementing a similar strategy to the US Meaningful Use guidelines in order to qualify for incentive payments?

The PITO program in BC has just announced a Meaningful Use post-implementation strategy.

Technology for Doctors - Sept 16: Now that BC has achieved a critical mass of EMR adoption, PITO is introducing a post-implementation support program to give physicians the support they need to move to the next level. “We envisioned this type of program would be needed from the outset, but we were initially focused on mass adoption of EMRs since you can’t support what doesn’t exist. Now that we’re there, it’s time to focus on getting value for our investment in quality patient care.”

To tackle this, PITO is introducing a rating system based on meaningful use. “It’s a similar approach as the U.S. Level 1 means an EMR is being used for billing but not clinical care, level 2 means they’re starting to use basic functions, and level 3 is a largely automated practice that uses the EMR to support chronic care management, e-prescriptions, etc. Levels 4 and 5 are the next leap into exchanging information across the medical community – but that can’t be achieved yet because the interoperable piece is still missing from the infrastructure.”

Post-implementation funding will be tied to the level of automation achieved with the EMR system. However, it’s not an all or nothing model, which is the American approach, says Smith. “To continue to get funding, physicians need to increase their level of meaningful use year over year. What we’re also seeing is that you need different models for various specialty practices. For a psychiatrist, maybe being at level 2 is relevant, but a cardiologist who wants to use sophisticated device integration may want to be at level 3.”

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Should Meaningful Use be a required component of every provincial program in Canada? Add your thoughts by clicking on the 'Comments' link below

Read More: http://blog.canadianemr.ca/canadianemr/2010/09/technology-for-doctors-tfdnews-0116.html