Referral to a Specialist - Request, Status Updates, Outcome

Cooperation for electronic referrals and record sharing

Many specialists I refer to are not utilizing record sharing or direct ID for referrals.  I have called many and they are only doing the bare minimum to meet meaningful use criteria, because of the effort involved in changing office operations.   My recommendation would be for assistance from healthIT.gov for organizations to use their EMR's capabilities maximally and promote interoperability.  No amount of technological advances in information exchange will be of value unless providers actually use them.  I have already spent a great deal of time calling offices in our area to encourage use of information exchange in order to help my practice waste less time chasing down records and results.  Unfortunately, however, most have not been interested in putting in the necessary work, which limits my ability to use information exchange.