News
SAHC moves forward with Meaningful Use
Scott Wagar
12/20/2011
St. Andrew’s Health Center has just completed stage one of the Meaningful Use project, which is a great accomplishment considering the center is only one of two health facilities that have completed the first stage of the project out of 50 hospitals in the state of North Dakota.
“Meaningful Use is a government assigned level of operation for a hospital to qualify for Medicaid and Medicare incentives and reimbursements so that we can take our clinical Electronic Medical Records (EMR) to enhance the safety of our patients, track important data and eliminate paper,” said Jeff Ofstedal, IT director of St. Andrew’s Health Center. “Meaningful Use was established to assist in nationwide incentives from the political side, which initially was started with George Bush to have all hospitals connected electronically. It was taken up years later by Obama with his stimulus packages.”
Ofstedal pointed out that besides incentives and reimbursements, Meaningful Use also assists individuals when they need immediate medical care.
“Eventually down the line, if a person is in a car accident in Texas, and that person is from Bottineau, the hospital you go to in Texas can get online and reference that person’s medical records instantly,” he said.
There are three stages in the Meaningful Use project, which includes:
- Stage 1: Data capture and sharing.
- Stage 2: Advance clinical processes.
- Stage 3: Improved outcomes.
It has taken St. Andrew’s 15 months to complete stage one, which Ofstedal stated is a great accomplishment.
“To get through stage one in this time frame, a good number of staff members in the hospital had a lot of little hills to climb. These individuals already had a full day with serving the patients, but after that, they worked on this project,” Ofstedal said. “Not only did they implement and use the program, they had to learn how to use it the way it was intended to be used, while at the same time making sure everybody else was on board. Many of the staff members in the facility have used paper for many years, especially in the nursing department, not to mention the doctors, and the staff had to be taught on the computer in how to use this program.”
With stage one completed at St. Andrew’s by the due date of 2015, the hospital will earn an incentive of around $10,000.
Those hospitals, which do not complete stage one by 2015, will be penalized.
The staff members who assisted Ofstedal in completing stage one in the Meaningful Use project include Jessie Boehnke, medical records; Mike DeFoe, business director; Brandi Hahn, clinic supervisor; Jennifer Lauckner, pharmacys department; Jade Trottier, nursing department; and JoAnn Vandel, billing department.