EHRs and RAVEN

I've spent a small portion of my weekend learning about RAVEN and the HL7 Connect programs.  RAVEN is from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and HL7 Connect is a software package from the US Department of Health and Human Services.

RAVEN

RAVEN  (or the Java version jRAVEN) is The Resident Assessment Validation and Entry that provides an option for Nursing Homes to collect and maintain facility, resident and MDS 3.0 Assessment information for subsequent submission to the appropriate state and/or national data repository.  MDS stands for Minimum Data Set, and is data required by CMS to be uploaded by all Nursing Homes.  RAVEN and jRAVEN run on the Windows operating system.

HL7 Connect

HL7 Connect is an open source software package, and was written for the HITECH Act, to enable all health organizations to electronically transmit and share electronic health records.  Due to the recent Meaningful Use legislation, that requires all physicians to populate and upload electronic health records. Meaningful Use is through CMS - The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid and The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.  Three main components of Meaningful Use are specified:

1. The use of a certified EHR in a meaningful manner, such as e-prescribing.
2. The use of certified EHR technology for electronic exchange of health information to improve quality of health care.
3. The use of certified EHR technology to submit clinical quality and other measures.

"Meaningful Use" means providers need to show they're using certified EHR technology in ways that can be measured significantly in quality and in quantity.


I'm finding it interesting that the RAVEN software and the Minimum Data Set and the HL7 Connect software run on different platforms....   and notice that I didn't say that RAVEN created an EHR, RAVEN creates and MDS report for upload.  I'm on my own mission right now to understand why and understand the differences between the MDS record and the EHR.

I setup RAVEN today here on my laptop, and I'm in the processes of installing HL7 Connect on my server here at home (yes, what a nerd, I do have a unix server at home....)

All this geeking around keeps my mind off my Dad, he's 86 years old, and his health is failing. His brain is fully intact, but his body is giving out on him.  I'm not sure which is worse, as if you're body goes, your mind is fully aware of it.   I'm hoping to keep him comfortable and have a few more weekends of movies, steaks and martini's this spring while I build my servers for this project I'm working on.