In the September 2009 edition of Hospitals & Health Networks, an article entitled “Connecting All Your Docs” appeared highlighting a survey that was conducted with all hospitals – Most Wired and the rest. The interesting finding was on the question regarding the ability to accept Continuity of Care Documents (CCD). From the article:
“The difference in the results is obvious from the data. Nearly 70 percent of the Most Wired can accept continuity of care records prepared from a physician office EMR regardless of whether the record is coming from employed or independent physician practices… That’s more than double the rate for the typical survey respondent and more than 11 times greater than the least wired.”
In the chart, it shows the numbers: 53% of all surveyed cannot accept a CCD from a physician office EMR, while only 16% of the Most Wired 2009 cannot accept a CCD from a physician EMR. Going to the least wired, the number that cannot accept a CCD jumps to 87%.
Two observations:
- Yes, it is logical that organizations focused on being “wired” should be able to do more than those that are not.
- There is a difference between having the ability to accept a CCD and actually accepting one. It would be interesting to know how many healthcare organizations are actually accepting a CCD from another provider. Today, there is much discussion on CCD, but the real use of it is still really unknown. With HITECH, however, the use of CCD will grow considerably in the next five years. Being prepared is a must.
The poll which is being run on HL7 Standards asks the question on the real use of the CCD today. See the poll at the right and let us know if you are electronically exchanging CCDs today. We know that there are many organizations that have the capability to accept CCDs, now the question is how many really are.
If you have specific experiences with CCD, please share your comments as well.
Explore more CCD topics on this blog.
