Meaningful Use Stage 2: Understanding the Imaging Accessibility Requirement

Trying to navigate Meaningful Use Stage 2 and wondering what’s with all the talk about medical imaging?

Well, there’s a new menu objective

and it calls for access to medical images through your certified EHR.

What is it, exactly?

What is it, exactly?

Drum roll please…

Imaging results consisting of the image

itself and any explanation or other

accompanying information are

accessible through CEHRT.

Put simply: The configuration between your CEHRT and imaging solution will need to do two things…

Electronically indicate to a user that a patient’s images and any accompanying information (reports, etc.) are available.

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Electronically indicate to a user that a patient’s images and any accompanying information (reports, etc.) are available.

Enable electronic access to the images and accompanying information.

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At a basic level, this menu objective calls for access to radiology images, and

reports via a certified EHR.

There’s good news….

There’s good news…. The guidelines for imaging

support in certified EHR technology are flexible.

You have options to embed radiology viewers, link to 3rd party imaging platforms, and store image data in a number of different ways depending on your preferred workflow.

In fact, you don’t need to store images in the CEHRT.

Although storing images in the CEHRT is one way to make them accessible, you can leverage other options, such as cloud storage.

In another words, the CEHRT does not need to store the images, it only

needs to make them accessible.

If you opt not to store images in your CEHRT how will you make them accessible?

If you opt not to store images in your CEHRT how will you make them accessible? Good

Question.

You can meet the requirement by image enabling your EHR with context-sensitive links to an external imaging platform to provide access to exams and reports.

Context-sensitive links, of course.

You’ll need to make this process as

seamless as possible. Here are 3 tips!

1 The link should enable access to the images themselves, not to the login screen of another program.

Direct access:  

2 Nobody wants to have their workflow interrupted by having to sign on to multiple systems. Users should immediately be signed into a 3rd party imaging application.

Single Sign-On  

3 If you require a viewer to access the images, the viewer should require no downloads or plugins.

Easy Viewing  

Do you NEED to attest? At this point in time, attesting to the

imaging requirement is one of six menu objective options.

Remember, there are a total of six menu objectives, in order to qualify for incentive payments you’ll need to meet three of the six.  *

Should you choose the imaging accessibility requirement?

If you work for an image intensive practice or if your organization relies heavily on

imaging, it would be especially beneficial to opt into the imaging requirement to meet

your Stage 2 MU goals.

So you want to learn more about imaging and MU Stage 2…

So you want to learn more about imaging and MU Stage 2…

can help with that.

Learn more about the imaging requirement with our eBook, A Deep Dive into

Meaningful Use Stage 2, available for free.

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