Preparing your Practice for Meaningful Use with EMR/EHR software for Incentives

There are some of the steps you need to take to prepare your practice for Meaningful Use. There are many things you need to comply with, but here's a small list that typically gets overlooked in a specialty practice. Please bear in  mind this is not supposed to be a comprehensive list.

1. Record chronic conditions in the medical history section of your EMR
2. Record preferred language, race and ethnicity in patient demographics when registering a new patient. For established patients, update this information. It is used by immunization registries and recording this is part of the meaningful use requirements.
3. Print Patient Education material from EMR.
4. Record Vital signs for patients. Record height and weight on each patient for at least one visit.
5. Record blood pressure on any patient especially those with a history of hypertension.
6. Record smoking / tobacco use.
7. Reconcile medications.
8. Provide a printed copy of the Continuity of Care Record when a patient is referred out to another doctor.