Meaningful Use Onboarding Process
The onboarding process may take as little as 6 to 8 weeks, or it may take several months. The length of the project is determined by how responsive providers and vendors are to action requests and how quickly issues are resolved. We follow the same process for all interface projects, not just for meaningful use or other EHR incentive programs.
Failure to respond to action requests may affect your meaningful use/EHR incentive program onboarding status. We may suspend a project if the provider or vendor fails to respond to an action request within 30 days on two separate occasions. When a project is suspended, the organization is returned to the bottom of the interface project wait list.
Step 1: Registration of Intent
Each hospital must submit an individual registration. For organizations with multiple clinics we accept one registration for all the facilities enrolled under that organization in the WAIIS. If your organization is already submitting immunization information to the WAIIS via an HL7 interface, you still need to register your intent to submit data for meaningful use or another EHR incentive program.
We add organizations to our interface project wait list after they register. They will stay on the wait list until we have the appropriate staff available to begin an interface project. We prioritize interface projects based on criteria established to meet key immunization program requirements.
Step 2: Invitation to Onboard
When we have the appropriate staff available to begin an interface project, we send you an email invitation to begin onboarding. With the invitation, youâ'll receive an HL7 Interface Discovery Questionnaire to fill out and return.
To participate in the OneHealthPort HIE, organizations must sign a participation agreement and pay an annual subscription fee to OneHealthPort. The contracting process with OneHealthPort may begin at any time. Connectivity with OneHealthPort HIE should begin during the Discovery phase and must be completed before Testing and Validation may begin.
Step 3: Discovery
When we receive the completed questionnaire, we schedule an onboarding kick-off and EHR demonstration call. During this meeting we review the onboarding process and define project participant roles and responsibilities. The provider staff, (with support from their EHR vendor), will also demonstrate how they use the EHR in their practice to capture patient and immunization information. The demonstration helps us to identify potential issues or challenges with message content, data quality, and clinic workflow.
Once any issues/challenges have been addressed, you send us a test message for review. We review the message for HL7 version 2.5.1 format compliance and Washington State requirements. When the format is approved, data may be sent to the QA system for testing and validation.
Step 4: Testing and Validation
You must send production data for testing and validation. All messages route through our data quality and validation application. Throughout testing, you establish on-going submission of data to the QA system just like you will in the production system. You are expected to establish routine interface monitoring practices. We also monitor the messages, set up automatic delivery of error reports, and work with you and your vendor to resolve any issues.
Once message format and content are deemed acceptable, we complete a Data Quality Analysis Report (DQA). Messages must meet the established thresholds for completeness and accuracy of all key data elements before the interface is approved for production. Once approved for production, a â"go-liveâ" date is scheduled.
Step 5: Production
When the interface has been approved for production, we assign HL7 Account credentials for the WAIIS production system. Weâ'll schedule a final prep meeting to review go-live steps and on-going responsibilities. A member of our WAIIS Training Team will contact you to schedule "go live" training.
We continue to closely monitor your interface for 30 days after you go live to be sure any issues are promptly resolved. You are responsible for:
- Consistently reviewing the warning/error report and fixing any issues.
- Keeping your EHR application up-to-date.
- Ensuring code table values are current with CDC-provided updates.
- Ensuring the interface continues to run at all times (especially after a power outage, or when you install/upgrade servers and software).
After 30 days, we monitor your interface on a periodic basis and contact you if we discover any unresolved issues. We may suspend on-going submission if issues are not resolved within 60 days.