To continue MEDITECH's efforts to stay at the
forefront of national health care regulations, President and
COO Howard Messing and Vice President of Marketing Hoda Sayed-Friel
recently met with President Obama's National Coordinator for
Health Information Technology, David Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.P.,
at his headquarters in Washington, D.C. The focus of the
meeting was to discuss customer-oriented approaches to the
adoption and deployment of health information technology.
"We wanted to represent our 2,000-plus customers and
share the successful strategies we've learned with them over
the past 40 years," says Messing. "We're doing
everything we can to ensure that our customers achieve the
outcomes required by the federal government. The meeting was
an important extension of this broader effort." Messing
and Sayed-Friel provided deployment suggestions that would be
suitable for the community hospital space.
During the meeting, Sayed-Friel also offered her
interpretations of the impact the Meaningful Use "matrix"
will have on clinical software systems. She followed up with
written correspondence she prepared for the National HIT
Policy Committee. "It's been rewarding to participate in
this process. I appreciated Dr. Blumenthal's time and
willingness to hear our contributions to the conversation, as
we act on behalf of our large customer base," she says.
"In fact, everyone whom I've spoken with in Washington
with regard to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)
has been tremendously open to listening to ideas. They are
truly committed to the cause of improving health care."
After speaking with MEDITECH's executives, Dr. Blumenthal
attended a health care I.T. (HIT) roundtable, hosted by
MEDITECH customer Mount Sinai Hospital (Chicago, IL). The
panel discussion, led by Vice President Joe Biden, included
several Chicago-area health care workers who voiced their
support of the federal government's new HIT program. The
event also provided a platform for the Vice President's announcement that nearly $1.2 billion of ARRA
funding will be allocated for hospital modernization and
health care information systems.
For more information on MEDITECH and the ARRA, visit our Interoperability & EHR
Initiatives Web
portal.
MEDITECH
Medical
Information Technology, Inc.
MEDITECH Circle
Westwood, MA 02090
781-821-3000
www.meditech.com