Does anyone know what sort of clinical information is going to be exchanged?
It would appear that this most basic question cannot yet be answered.
Here is a link to HIStalk which is quoted below. The quote is fairly long, but even so, I would suggest you read the entire blog as it is very informative. It is, however, just opinion:
"Looking at the Core Requirements, the most difficult requirements seem to be (in order of difficulty):
Capability to exchange key clinical information. The biggest difficulty with this objective seems to be figuring out what the heck it means. What are ?different legal entities?? What are ?distinct certified EHR technologies?? What is ?key clinical information?? What does it mean to ?electronically exchange? key clinical information?
There are some answers available at CMS, but health care delivery is too complex, and the FAQs a tad too vague, to be really useful in many if not most circumstances.
One large source of confusion with this requirement is whether it requires some kind of connection to a Health Information Exchange. The answer is a resounding NO. Indeed, meeting the requirement doesn?t seem to require an electronic connection to another practice at all. All it requires is that a valid clinical summary CCD/c32 be generated from one certified system, and that an attempt be made to upload it into another distinct certified system.
Thus it would be perfectly acceptable to create the file using your certified EHR system, encrypt it (using a cheap and easily available commercial utility like WinZip, for example), pass the file to another practice on a CD or a thumb drive or even using commercial e-mail (like Gmail or Yahoo), and ask them to try to upload it into their system.
Doesn?t have to be through an organized HIE activity. Doesn?t have to be structured data. Doesn?t have to be transported electronically, since ONC somehow decided not to create any standards for that. Doesn?t even have to be successfully uploaded by the receiving practice! It?s like testing my high school son?s ability to show up for the SAT exam on time and with a number 2 pencil, rather than his ability to actually answer the questions on the test. (He?d be thrilled!)
If you are part of an organized HIE activity (like the New England Health Exchange Network, for example), you can transport your test file electronically. And some EHR vendors are helping their customers meet this requirement by matching up different customers with each other and facilitating transport through their own proprietary exchange infrastructure.
For example, eClinicalWorks, Medent, and Epic provide this service to their customers. But if you don?t happen to have such options, you can go just do it the old-fashioned way described above, and maybe even make it a little fun. ?Hey Dr. Jayne, bring your flash drive on Wednesday morning and we?ll take care of MU before our tee time.? "
