The goals of the Stage 2 changes are to:
Increase health information exchange between providers to:
* Improve coordination of care
* Reduce medical errors
* Eliminate duplication of tests and screening
Increase health information exchange between providers by:
* Providing access and means to view,
download, and transmit their heath information
* Sending preventative and follow-up
reminders
* Providing opportunities for electronic
communication with the provider
Some of the things you can do now to prepare include:
Communicate with your EHR Vendor
* When will they be ready for Stage 2?
* What additional costs may be involved?
* Is additional training and support needed?
* What support and documentation are provided to
demonstrate compliance with enhanced Stage 2
security requirements?
Patient Portal is key to Stage 2
* Collect patient e-mail addresses along with
demographics
* Set up patient portal
* Push clinical summaries and patient education
to the patient portal
* Promote the portal to your patients
Lab - think "In and Out"
* Orders in
* Results to EHR and managed through the EHR
* If not interfaced with labs, work toward this in
2013
Radiology/Imaging - think "In and Out"
* Orders in
* Communicate with imaging providers about
interface availability
Transitions of Care
* Core measure for Stage 2
* How does your EHR recognize a transition of care
for reporting?
Clinical Decision Support
* Increased from one to five
* Review PQRS measures relevant to your practice
* Activate CDS rules to align with quality measure
requirements
Through the guidance of the Texas Health Services Authority (THSA) and your West Texas Health IT Regional Extension Center (WTxHITREC), providers are now able to deliver private, secure messages utilizing existing Health Information Exchange (HIE) across the state where Health Information Service Providers (HISPs) exist. These systems build on previous secure e-mail technologies to ensure patient health information is kept secure. 
