ma2rn2008

Thank you RNINFORMATICS for your reply. I understand and totally agree that the primary focus of meeting meaningful use is improving quality of care and keeping our patients at the center of our focus. After reading your reply I reread my post and realized how it may have sounded. I in no way intended to imply that the incentives are more important than improving patient care. We must, however, consider the incentive payments and potential penalties in our planning process. You also mentioned the ARRA Quality Measures which I think are different than the Core Measures I referred to. The Eligible Hospital and CAH Attestation Worksheet for Medicare EHR Incentive Program states that eligible hospitals must meet all 14 Core Measures; 5 out of 10 Menu Measures (including at least one public health measure) and all 15 of the Clinical Quality Measures. Is this correct? Again, thanks for sharing your expertise on the subject and for pointing me in the right direction. I look forward to the journey into this exciting new world of nursing!

I am new to nursing informatics having recently accepted a position as a Clinical Applications Specialist RN. The main focus at our hospital,of course, is meeting meaningful use criteria in order to receive the government incentive payments. There are so many gray areas in the CMS Core Measures. For Measure 13, which the objective is to have the capability to exchange key clinical information among providers of care electronically, it does not state specifically how the electronic exchange must take place. It says if the data is available in a structured format it should be transferred in a structured format. Does this mean the data has to transfer directly into the the medical record of the receiving entity or can this be an electronic PDF document? Also can someone define discrete data? Is this the same as structured data?