While many providers voice their complaints with current federal health IT regulations, those in pediatrics face additional barriers to functioning in the regulatory environment.
Debbie Rupe, RN, a clinical analyst of information management at Shriners Hospitals for Children – Tampa (Fla.), and a HIMSS fellow, wrote in a HIMSS post how pediatric providers are required to meet healthcare initiatives that were largely designed for an adult population.
"For an EHR to be relevant to the pediatric population, the system frequently requires customization rather than accepting a vendor standard," she wrote.
Pediatric providers are less likely to attest to meaningful use, with just 35 percent of pediatric hospitals receiving meaningful use incentive payments as of May. Ms. Rupe wrote there is often a lack of relevance for meaningful use criteria for pediatric care.
Ms. Rupe also identified challenges to success in pediatric ACOs. For example, she wrote there need to be performance metrics to accurately measure the quality of pediatric care. Additionally, as pediatric populations are generally healthy, they need a larger number of patients to show significant cost savings.
More articles on health IT:
28 recent health IT tips and strategies from CIOs, vendors and industry experts
Startup Insider: Smart Scheduling
What are the best EHRs for specialists?