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Fri, Oct 30 2009 3:26 PM EST
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On Wednesday after his keynote, David Blumenthal, M.D., National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, met privately with a group of 12 CIOs. The group reflected the diversity of America’s hospitals, from east to west, from academic medical centers to small and rural hospitals.
“We provided targeted feedback,” said Chuck Christian, CIO, Good Samaritan Hospital, Vincennes, Ind. Christian said that he had a specific message for Blumenthal: “I’m worried about critical access hospitals and onesie-twosie physician practices having the wherewithal to achieve meaningful use.”
Bill Spooner, senior vice president and CIO, Sharp HealthCare, San Diego, said he had a potentially unpopular message for the National Coordinator about meaningful use criteria. “There are some of us who feel that the bar is too low,” he said, noting that the stimulus funds will not be allocated fairly “if a neighboring hospital did half the work but gets the same check.”
Spooner said Blumenthal is “telling us everything he can. He’s giving us some direction,” adding that hospitals need to work on interoperability, CPOE and quality indicators.
The dialogue is just beginning, said Pam McNutt, senior vice president and CIO, Methodist Health System, Dallas. “We were given some homework,” she said. “He wants feedback from the field. What works? What’s not working? Are there unintended consequences?” McNutt said that CHIME’s advocacy group will reach out to members, as needed, to gather feedback from the field. “The lines of communication are open,” she said. “That’s exactly what I hoped for.”
Alden Solovy, associate publisher of H&HN, is blogging from the CHIME conference.
