In January 2016, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt announced that CMS would update Meaningful Use to focus more on patient care and outcomes.

At the same time, Slavitt brought renewed attention to the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015—MACRA—triggering confusion among hospitals and health systems already scrambling to attest to Meaningful Use. 

Many questions arose. What is MACRA? What is the relationship between MACRA and Meaningful Use? Is Meaningful Use over?

Patient portals—websites allowing patients to easily and securely access their EHRs and even communicate with their providers—were one of the big recommendations of MU2 in 2012.

CMS promoted portals as a way for patients to access their EHRs and for providers to demonstrate that their patients were actually doing this, calling the portal “a powerful platform for increasing access, empowering patients, supporting care between visits and improving health outcomes.”

Yet, three years into MU recommendations for patient portals, no one is calling them a resounding success.

By now it seems that every hospital has a patient portal. But is everyone—hospitals and patients alike—using them to their full potential? According to one survey, many patients still don’t know their providers offer portals. As providers, we also depend on getting patients to visit their portals to initiate patient-provider communication. When used well, portals help hospitals engage patients and meet Meaningful Use requirements. The challenge is in how to make good use of your patient portal.

HealthEast Care System was determined to use our portal to improve health outcomes through proactive, consistent health information that patients could access anywhere. Here’s how we did it.

The GOP debate that aired Feb. 6 on ABC offered viewers a good laugh as candidates and moderators alike fumbled their entrances and introductions. “How could this kind of miscommunication happen?” many of us wondered. And what would the repercussions be for the candidates and debate organizers? 

The truth is, we all experience similar missteps (though admittedly less public) every day. And while our own stumbles may seem minor given the fact that they aren’t posted on YouTube for all to see, they still have implications for our goals—in the case of hospitals and health systems: improving patient experience, raising HCAHPS scores and reducing readmissions.

With that in mind, here are some lessons from the GOP debate entrance that hospital and other healthcare executives can apply to meeting their goals.