Health System Achieves Meaningful Use Goal

Press Release: Mille Lacs Heath System
Contact: Mary Rains, Marketing Manager at (320) 532-2608

Last week, Mille Lacs Health System Clinical Application Analyst Joe Manthei , Health Information Manager Lisa Schultz, and health consultant Judy Beck – with the direction of CEO Bill Nelson got an “A” grade and are at the top of the class regarding a very timely project. The Mille Lacs team has been hard at work preparing to electronically record the results for 35 different measures of “Meaningful Use.” The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services accepted their documentation, stating that they had successfully met the standards for the hospital electronic medical record stage 1 Meaningful Use criteria.

MLHS has been working to achieve this status to create not only an integrated healthcare record, but to use that certified electronic medical record to deliver the best patient care. This is part of a nationwide direction toward electronic healthcare technology as it relates to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act. The federal government gives healthcare providers financial incentives to improve patient care and create the infrastructure needed to implement integrated healthcare records. Facilities are required to meet standards for quality, safety, efficiency, and reducing health disparities – in other words, “Meaningful Use.”

MLHS has invested resources over the last few years to have Electronic Medical Records available in most departments throughout the hospital. “We are one of the first critical access hospitals in Minnesota to meet Meaningful Use criteria,” stated Bill Nelson. “We were able to demonstrate the use of an electronic health record in the required manner. The community can be proud that the local health system has achieved these standards. Hospitals all over the country are striving to meet these and MLHS has done it.” Because of the achievement, MLHS will receive Federal Incentive ARRA dollars.

“The providers and nursing staff at MLHS are using these electronic tools as part of their health care delivery,” said team member Judy Beck. “We have prepared these employees to work together to learn and use the new system.”

For the community, the shift to electronic medical records means the providers and nurses have the best information available to deliver care, as well as current certified tools to use.