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Alternative meaningful use criterion for reporting laboratory results

The federal government issued a proposed rule last month that adds an alternative stage two meaningful use criterion for the electronic transmission of structured laboratory results from hospitals to the health care providers who ordered the lab tests.

The rule, issued jointly by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, states that hospitals must send structured electronic clinical laboratory results to the ordering provider for more than 20 percent of lab orders received from such providers, regardless of how the orders were received.

The original meaningful use criterion for lab orders requires hospitals to send structured electronic clinical lab results to the ordering provider for more than 20 percent of the lab orders it receives electronically.

The federal government explained in the proposed rule that it generated the alternative criterion because the original version assumes that if a hospital does not receive lab orders electronically, it will be less likely to send the results to the ordering provider electronically. The proposed rule also states that a hospital that receives a very small percentage of lab orders electronically may find it difficult to meet the original threshold regardless of the number of lab results it sends electronically to ordering providers.

Hospitals would have the option of using the original or alternative measure to satisfy meaningful use objectives.

The alternative criterion was published in the Dec. 7 Federal Register as an interim final rule with comment period.

HHS posts information on mobile device security

The federal government has introduced an online resource pertaining to how health care providers can protect and secure patient information on mobile devices, such as smartphones, laptops, and tablets.

Available on the Department of Health and Human Services Web site at www.healthit.gov/mobiledevices, the resource features training videos and tips.

“HHS listened to you,” reads the Web page, titled Your Mobile Device and Health Information Privacy and Security. “HHS conducted a Mobile Device Roundtable in March 2012 and held a 30-day public comment period to identify and gather the tips and information most useful to health care providers and professionals using mobile devices in their work.” However, HHS adds, the information provided is not intended to be exhaustive nor serve as legal advice.

Contracts

Lifepoint Informatics has entered into an agreement with Yankee Alliance, under which it will supply the Andover, Mass.-based group purchasing organization with connectivity software for exchanging laboratory results and reports and other patient data. Yankee Alliance, a member of Premier Inc., has more than 12,800 health care members nationwide.

Lifepoint Informatics, 201-447-9991

Yale-New Haven Hospital, New Haven, Conn., has announced plans to install Mediware Information Systems’ Transtem cellular therapy software. Yale-New Haven is a nonprofit acute care hospital with two main campuses.

Mediware Information Systems, 888-633-4927

Dr. Aller is director of informatics and clinical professor in the Department of Pathology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He can be reached at raller@usc.edu. Hal Weiner is president of Weiner Consult­ing Services, LLC, Florence, Ore. He can be reached at hal@weinerconsulting.com.