We are well on our way to becoming a certified EHR. As part of this process, we must comply with all measures of Stage 2 of Meaningful Use, including
Measure 3. This measure states that 80% of “all unique patients seen by the Eligible Provider (EP) have demographics recorded as structured data.” The demographics that must be reported by the EP include preferred language, sex, race, ethnicity, and date of birth. For race and ethnicity demographics, the EP must follow
current federal guidelines. According to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget Statistical Programs and Standards, there are to be at least “five categories for data on race” and “two for data on ethnicity.” The standard goes on to say that, “respondents shall be offered the option of selecting one or more racial designations.” This means that EPs must use specific race designations and be able to report on patients that self-identify as multiple races.
The Rexpert Account Registration program already captured the required demographics for each unique patient except for "patients that self-identified as multiple races". This option has been updated in our recent release. We now include Race 1 and Race 2 in the account registration screen and we show both races selected in the Demographics tab of Account Inquiry.
What does this mean for you? It means that your patient registration forms will need to be updated, if they haven’t been already, to include the option for a patient to select more than one race. You should do this regardless of the EHR you are using: they all fall under the same requirements.
Check out the
CMS website to learn more about Meaningful Use Stage 2.
Contributor: Mel Johnson
