Halfpenny Technologies Announces Stage 2 Meaningful Use Tool Kit

BLUE BELL, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Halfpenny Technologies today announced its Meaningful Use Tool Kit, a cloud based software toolset that enables electronic health record (EHR) vendors and clinical laboratories to expedite certification and compliance with Meaningful Use Stage 2 (MU2) regulations. While Stage 1 largely affected EHR vendors, MU2 contains requirements that impact eligible hospital laboratories with increased emphasis on incorporation of structured lab results, utilization of a new health level 7 (HL7) format for lab results (LRI IG), computerized physician order entry (CPOE), and the use of logical observation identifiers names and codes (LOINC®).

In order for an EHR to incorporate lab results as structured data, the lab must send lab results as structured data. Eligible hospital labs are required to send at least 20% of their ambulatory results in the new laboratory results initiative implementation guide HL7 format (LRI IG). Moreover, eligible hospital laboratories will be required to utilize LOINC codes for most of the common lab results. Halfpenny has developed techniques and tools to accurately map lab test dictionaries to the LOINC set and apply those codes to lab results even if the laboratory’s LIS cannot support LOINC codes.

Tim Kowalski, Halfpenny Technologies’ President & CEO commented, “With the finalization of MU2 requirements, the deadline for labs and EHR vendors to meet these requirements is quickly approaching. Our robust and time-proven Meaningful Use Tool Kit uniquely enables these labs and EHR vendors to solve the MU2 challenge without diverting their internal resources from other mission critical initiatives with a cost-effective and technologically robust approach.”

For EHR vendors, the Halfpenny Meaningful Use Tool Kit provides out-of-the-box CPOE and results delivery capabilities that can be rapidly and seamlessly embedded within their workflow and graphical user interface (GUI) to quickly facilitate compliance with ONC certification requirements.

For clinical laboratories, the Meaningful Use Tool Kit replaces the cumbersome multitude of point-to-point EHR connections with a single pipe connection to the Halfpenny cloud based solution – Integrated Technology Framework hub (ITF-Hub) rather than individually integrating with every EHR system used by the physician practices they serve. Halfpenny Technologies has integrations with more than 200 EHR systems, and more are being added each month. By connecting to the Halfpenny ITF-Hub, clinical laboratories improve service for their customers, offer features that physicians do not get from other laboratories such as bundled results or dashboards, all while lowering their costs for EHR integration. The Halfpenny Meaningful Use Tool Kit simplifies the integration of EHR systems with clinical laboratories’ Lab Information Systems (LIS).

Halfpenny Technologies will be exhibiting at the 2012 G2 Intelligence 30^th Annual Lab Institute in Arlington, VA October 10-12 as well as Pathology Informatics 2012 in Chicago, IL October 9-12.

About Halfpenny Technologies

Halfpenny Technologies Inc. provides clinical laboratories, hospitals, health plans, health information exchanges and EHR vendors with a cloud based, secure, scalable, vendor-neutral clinical data exchange platform. Our proven track record of providing advanced features, rapid implementation, reliable technology infrastructure and LOINC mapping enables laboratories and hospitals to win new clients and better compete in the HITECH era; health plans to improve HEDIS reporting and STAR ratings, increase revenue and support population-based initiatives; and EHR vendors to include CPOE and results delivery in their solutions and meet Meaningful Use certification requirements.