Meaningful Use Is Not The Finish Line

Improved information exchange, reimbursement, and patient care analytics require diligent enterprise terminology management.

While earning financial incentives for achieving Meaningful Use is a worthy short-term goal, the increasingly interconnected nature of healthcare IT is making enterprise terminology management a new and essential part of long-term operations.

Today the predominant focus in healthcare is on creating more efficient, collaborative, and patient-centered care. Encouraging this effort are initiatives ranging from the Meaningful Use of electronic health records (EHRs) to the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS), as well as the recent transition from ICD-9-CM to ICD-10-CM/PCS. All of these programs now are compelling healthcare organizations to reassess how data is collected, managed, distributed, and analyzed. While earning financial incentives for achieving Meaningful Use is a worthy short-term goal, the increasingly interconnected nature of healthcare IT is making enterprise terminology management a new and essential part of long-term operations.