RIS Receives Complete EHR Certification for Meaningful Use for Radiology

A radiology information system (RIS) has received the US government’s “Meaningful Use” stamp of approval, thereby becoming the only major RIS with complete electronic health record (EHR) ambulatory certification.

In 2009, the US Congress enacted the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which provided for US$20 billion in funding for healthcare technology (referred to as the HITECH Act). Within that, more than $1.5 billion is estimated to be available to radiologists who use certified electronic health-record technology in a meaningful way. However, options in radiology have been very limited to date, as current EHRs are either not built specifically for radiology workflow, or they are modularly certified products that require the radiologist to purchase additional applications to meet the remaining requirements, even if they are not used.

Merge Healthcare (Chicago, IL, USA), a provider of enterprise imaging and interoperability solutions, developed the Merge RIS v7.0. With this system, radiology providers can now utilize a single product for radiology-specific workflow to qualify for up to $44,000 in funding under the HITECH Act. “We are thrilled to be leading the radiology market with complete EHR certification for our radiology information software,” said Jeff Surges, CEO of Merge Healthcare. “This certification means that the radiology industry has a new option for participating in the HITECH Act--without having to sacrifice radiology workflow. We have been able to learn from our large install base of radiology customers and build a solution that is custom made for their specific needs and workflow. At the end of the day, we’ve worked together to ensure our solution benefits both patients and providers.”

Merge RIS v 7.0 integrates core Meaningful Use functionality and can capture all necessary and relevant patient information to meet the guidelines of Meaningful Use, without disrupting the traditional radiology workflow.

Functionality includes ePrescribing, enhanced reporting that enables physicians to automatically trend clinical data and report on Meaningful Use measures, new clinical decision support, the clinical exchange of health information through industry standard formats, and a patient portal that empowers patients to access their records at their convenience. This new functionality was built natively within the intuitive, web-based Merge RIS so that any radiology practice can achieve Meaningful Use attestation in a manner that works for their specialty.

Regional Medical Imaging (RMI), a large outpatient radiology group in the state of Michigan, has participated in the testing of Merge RIS v7.0, and is currently collecting the required data to attest to Meaningful Use and receive 2011 reimbursement. “Meaningful Use is an important initiative that carries a significant reimbursement opportunity for our organization,” said Randy Hicks, MD, owner of Regional Medical Imaging (RMI; Flint, MI, USA). “Therefore it’s been imperative for us to work with an organization that understands our needs and can provide a solution that will seamlessly integrate within our existing applications. I continue to be impressed with Merge’s ability to build those kinds of solutions for imaging IT [information technology].”

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Merge Healthcare