Of the 485 eligible physicians who have attested to meaningful use stage 2 so far this reporting year, 59.2 percent are athenahealth customers. One of these customers, Peter E. Masucci, MD, a pediatrician in Everett, Mass., shared in a recent blog post how he was able to meet two of the most challenging requirements of stage 2.
To meet the preventive care reminder requirement, Dr. Masucci's practice used the population health capabilities of its athenahealth electronic health record system to send reminders to patients who needed a vaccine or had missed an appointment, without changing their existing workflow of scheduling patients' subsequent visits at check-in.
To meet the secure electronic messaging requirement, the practice's staff proactively reached out to patients through the patient portal, asking if they had follow-up questions or needed additional service, such as a prescription refill. The practice also launched an outreach campaign to let patients know about the portal and held training sessions to teach patients how to use the portal's functionality.
"We're now in a great place to continue educating our staff and patients, and to be prepared for a full year of stage 2 in 2015," wrote Dr. Masucci.
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