Stage 2 meaningful use has some advantages for patients

There's been a lot of buzz about the new meaningful use standards announcements this past week. My quick take on it is that if Stage 2 criteria were a phone, it'd be less like the iPhone 5 people were expecting, and more like the upgraded iPhone 4S they wound up with. In other words, tweaked, not revolutionary.

In my opinion, the user-experience-enhancing "Siri" of the piece (if I'm to carry the phone analogy too far -- work with me here!) is the upcoming requirement that more than half of a given organization's patients be provided timely online access to their health information, and that ten percent must actually access that information.

I mean, we've been able to use the Internet to access our bank records for some time now. Why shouldn't we be able to have the same kind of access to our medical records? I really think there should also be some sort of an appeals process when things are mis-charted, or misdiagnosis has occurred, but I won't be holding my breath until that shows up in the meaningful use guidelines.

If you want to know more about the new meaningful use guidelines, here are some resources to get you started.

Visit the HIMSS Meaningful Use OneSource for a great way to stay in the know. The site gives an overview of the topic, which includes the guidelines themselves (for both hospitals and professionals), links to webcasts of sessions on the topic, state-by-state information, breaking news, and notifications of future events.

If you'd like, you can download the actual PDF from the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Here's Medscape's take on the subject, which you may have to log in to read.

What would you like to see in the meaningful use guidelines? Let us know in the TalkBacks below.