ehr onc final certification - Department of Health Care Services

of discharge, upon
request
department or
emergency
department (POS
21 or 23) and who
request an
electronic copy of
their discharge
instructions are
provided it
Final Rule Text:
§170.306(e)
Electronic copy of discharge instructions. Enable a user to
create an electronic copy of the discharge instructions for a
patient, in human readable format, at the time of discharge on
electronic media or through some other electronic means.
Comment. A few commenters expressed support for this certification criterion.
Some commenters requested that we clarify the meaning of “procedures” in the context
of this certification criterion.
Response. We have revised this certification criterion to be consistent with the
changes to the meaningful use objective and measure in the Medicare and Medicaid EHR
Incentive Programs final rule, which removes the word “procedures” from the
meaningful use objective.
Comment. A commenter requested that we clarify the meaning of the phrase “at
time of discharge” and specifically, whether it means literally at the time when a patient
is discharged or more broadly, soon after the discharge occurs, in which case the
instructions could be made available to the patient, for example, through a web portal.
Response. This phrase is derived from the Medicare and Medicaid EHR
Incentive Programs final rule, and CMS has provided clarifying remarks related to this
comment.
Comment. One commenter recommended that the certification criterion include
consideration of the patient’s preferred language.
Response. Like our prior responses, we do not believe that requiring this
information is appropriate or necessary to include as a condition of certification.
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