Jim Tate, Meaningful Use Expert

What EHR products were used in Stage 1 Meaningful Use Attestation in 2011?

That is the question that has been being asked for months. For Eligible Hospitals (EH) and Eligible Providers (EP) that have been attesting to Stage 1 Meaningful Use, which Complete EHRs and/or Modules are being represented? Well, thanks to the CMS, we are finally able to peek behind the curtain. The data has been made available in a 7+ MB file provided by the US government. The data was created by a process described as “Data set merges information about the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs attestations with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, Certified Health IT Products List.”

There are certain limitations to the data. For example information about EP attestations only includes the Medicare EHR Incentive Program. For both EPs and EHs the use of certified modules can skew the data somewhat and must be kept in mind. The data is made up of 59,923 attestations and this is based on the certified technology so that in the case of an EH using modular EHR technology from 4 vendors the data shows 4 separate attestations. The data records are based on number of certified applications (Complete or Modular) reported during attestation. So we are not really comparing apples to oranges but at least we are counting fruit, and that is a start. The time period of the data begins April 2011 and the file was update January 24, 2012. Without further explanation, quantification or need for any more disclaimer, here are the top certified Modules and Complete EHRs used during the attestation process for the CMS EHR incentive programs based on the presented data.

Jim Tate is a nationally recognized expert on the CMS EHR Incentive Program, certified technology and meaningful use and author of The Incentive Roadmap® The Meaningful Use of Certified Technology: Stage 1.