Sarah Krug, president of the Society for Participatory Medicine, had taken her stab at diplomacy before I spoke with her over the phone last week.
I had been reading news releases and calling people I know to put together a story about industry leaders' reaction to the massive, 1,354-page, three-rule phone book the feds dropped on the industry Aug. 23 and Aug. 24 when I received a hedged e-mail from Krug's group.
"Although we're disappointed this final rule does not give patients next-day access to their electronic medical record after they leave the hospital, we believe that on balance the Stage 2 meaningful-use requirements go a long way towards patient empowerment and feature a number of important patient-centered innovations," it said.
In a follow-up phone call, she was more direct: "Long story short, we're disappointed."
The goal of the New York-based not-for-profit, Krug said, is for patients to have immediate access to their updated records. They had been hoping for next-day access in the Stage 2 rule. Instead, the rule requires hospitals to make available online to more than 50% of their patients their information within 36 hours of discharge.
"It's definitely a step in the right direction,' Krug said, before adding, "I'm sure there are going to be a lot of patients that are going to be just as disappointed."