Meaningful use of the Omaha System: Considering adoption of an EHR

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 authorized the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to reimburse physicians and hospitals for “meaningful use” of electronic health records (EHRs). Although many are advocating for expansion to public health, the Act will impact health departments regardless. “Meaningful use” suggests that better healthcare is achieved through interoperability or the exchange of health information to best inform clinical decisions at the point-of-care. The cornerstones of meaningful use are (1) Improve quality, safety, efficiency, and reduce health disparities, (2) Engage patients and families, (3) Improve care coordination, (4) Improve population and public health, and (5) Ensure privacy and security protections. Meaningful use requires an integrated healthcare community that reduces health disparities, and is congruent with social justice. Structured clinical documentation and standardized terminologies are necessary prerequisites for such integration. The Omaha System is a research-based, standardized, comprehensive terminology that exists in the public domain, and is linked to the cornerstones of meaningful use. It was designed to be user-friendly and improve practice, documentation, and information management throughout the community. It is included in SNOMED CT®, LOINC, and HL7, the US DHHS messaging standards, and in HITSP use cases, the national initiative to increase interoperability. Interdisciplinary practitioners at the point-of-care, managers and administrators, students and educators, and researchers as well as software developers who base their clinical information systems on the Omaha System recognize that it can be meaningful to generate and track consistent and accurate data. Because adoption of information technology is expanding rapidly in health departments and other provider sites, it is important to work together to improve, describe, quantify, and communicate data about the quality and costs of clinical services. Therefore, the use of the Omaha System is increasing nationally and internationally.