Meaningful Use (MU) is defined as a healthcare provider’s usage of certified EHR technology in a way that can be measured largely in quality and in quantity. By establishing meaningful use using an Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) certified EHR program; healthcare providers can collect stimulus money, as arranged through the HITECH act of 2009. MU is designed to improve healthcare quality, efficiency, safety, and help to reduce health disparities. Also this helps to maintain privacy and security of patient healthcare information. (EHR Incentives & Certification, 2014) The objectives of meaningful use will take form in three stages, to be rolled out over a five year period. Stage one took place between 2011 and 2012 which involved data capture and sharing. Within this stage the criteria focused on electronically obtaining health data in a standardized format, using health information to track clinical conditions, instigating the reporting of public health information and clinical quality measures, and finally using these materials to involve patients and their families in their healthcare. Stage two is to take place in this year of 2014. In this stage there will be a strive for additional health information exchange, improved requirements for e – prescribing and incorporating lab results, added patient controlled data and electronic transmission of all patient care summaries across various settings. The third stage will take place in 2016.The objectives will be based on improving safety, efficiency, and quality of the EHR’s which will lead to improved health outcomes. Also patients will have access to self- management tools, and decision support will be available for national high ... ... middle of paper ... ... their personal health records for any possible mistakes. In the end meaningful use is a very beneficial program for both patients and healthcare providers, and we have only seen the beginning of its work. In the years to come we will continue to see more constructive changes in the health industry due to stages two and three of meaningful use. Works Cited HRSA. (2014). Retrieved from U.S Depatment of Health and Human Services: http://www.hrsa.gov (HRSA, 2014) EHR Incentives & Certification. (2014, May). Retrieved from HealthIT.gov: http://www.healthit.gov (EHR Incentives & Certification, 2014) Hamilton, B. R. (2013). Electronic Health Records. New York: McGraw-Hill. (Hamilton, 2013)
The federal government has taken a stance to standardized care by creating incentive programs that are mandated under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) of 2009. This act encourages healthcare providers and healthcare institutions to adopt Meaningful use in order to receive incentives from Medicare and Medicaid. Meaningful use is the adoption of a certified health record system that acquires or obtains specified objectives about a patient. The objectives or measures are considered gold standard practices with the EHR system. Examples of the measures include data entry of vital signs, demographics, allergies, entering medical orders, providing patients with electronic copies of their records, and many more pertinent information regarding the patient (Friedman et al, 2013, p.1560).
The goal of the program is to increase EHR adoption, improve quality, safety, reduce disparities, and improve public health (HMSA, 2012). The Meaningful Use program was set up for implementation in three stages over a five-year period. The first stage ended in 2012 and involved evaluating health trends, and finding out methods to engage patients and families in their own care. Stage two focuses on advanced data sharing, such as e-prescribing and electronic exchange of patient information between professionals. Stage three’s focus will be on outcomes, patient access to care and self-help care tools for patients, such as access to their medical records.... ...
Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act consists of several subtitles. The subtitle D of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act deals with the privacy and security issues that are associated with the electronic transmission of health information. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act requires that as of 2011 all healthcare providers are going to be presented with the opportunity of financial incentives for showing meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs). The proposed incentives will be offered up until 2015 and after that, penalties may occur for the failure of representing the use of EHR. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act even started grants for the training centers for all staff members that are required to support a health information technology infrastructure. (www.healthcareitnews.com).
“Meaningful Use” implemented in July, 2010, set criteria’s for physicians and hospitals to adhere, in order to qualify for certain financial incentives and to be deemed meaningful users (MU) of the EMR. Meaningful use in healthcare is defined as using certified electronic health record to improve quality, safety, efficiency, and reduce mortality and morbidity. There are 3 stages of meaningful use implementation. The requirements for the 3 stages are spread out over a period of 5 years. MU mandates that physicians meet 15 core objectives and hospitals meet 14 core objectives (Hoffman & Pudgurski, 2011). The goal is to in-cooperate the patient and family in their health, empower autonomy to make decisions while improving care in all population.
Unfortunately, the quality of health care in America is flawed. Information technology (IT) offers the potential to address the industry’s most pressing dilemmas: care fragmentation, medical errors, and rising costs. The leading example of this is the electronic health record (EHR). An EHR, as explained by HealthIT.gov (n.d.), is a digital version of a patient’s paper chart. It includes, but is not limited to, medical history, diagnoses, medications, and treatment plans. The EHR, then, serves as a resource that aids clinicians in decision-making by providing comprehensive patient information.
“An electronic health record (EHR) is a digital version of a patient’s paper chart. EHRs are real-time, patient-centered records that make information available instantly and securely to authorized users.” (healthit.gov) The EHR mandate was created “to share information with other health care providers and organizations – such as laboratories, specialists, medical imaging facilities, pharmacies, emergency facilities, and school and workplace clinics – so they contain information from all clinicians involved in a patient’s care.” ("Providers & Professionals | HealthIT.gov", n.d., p. 1) The process has proved to be quite challenging for providers. As an incentive, the government began issuing payments to those providers who “meaningfully use certified electronic health record (EHR) technology.” (hhs.gov) There are three stages that providers must progress through in order to receive theses financial incentives. Stage one is the initial stage and is met with the creation and implementation of the HER in the business. Stage two “increases health information exchange between providers.” ("United States Department of Health and Human Services | HHS.gov", n.d., p. 1) Stage three will be the continuation and expansion of the “meaningful use objectives.” ("United States Department of Health and Human Services | HHS.gov", n.d., p. 1) The hospital, where I work, initiated the HER mandate many years ago. In this paper, I will discuss the progression and the challenges that my hospital encountered while implementing the EHR mandate.
The Meaningful Use includes the implementation of EHR in three Stages and is mainly focused on using EHR as a new healthcare technology that is used to promote health information exchange and resulting in improved outcomes in patient care. This benefited both the providers as well as the patients.
The health industry has existed ever since doctors bartered for chickens to pay for their services. Computers on the other hand, in their modern form have only existed since the 1940s. So when did technology become a part of health care? The first electronic health record(EHR) programs were created in the 1960s around the same time the Kennedy administration started exploring the validity of such products (Neal, 2013). Between the 1960s and the current administration, there were little to no advancements in the area of EHR despite monumental advancements in software and hardware that are available. While some technology more directly related to care, such as digital radiology, have made strides medical record programs and practice management programs have gained little traction. Physicians have not had a reason or need for complicated, expensive health record suites. This all changed with the introduction of the Meaningful Use program introduced in 2011. Meaningful use is designed to encourage and eventually force the usage of EHR programs. In addition, it mandates basic requirements for EHR software manufactures that which have become fragmented in function and form. The result was in 2001 18 percent of offices used EHR as of 2013 78 percent are using EHR (Chun-Ju Hsiao, 2014). Now that you are caught up on some of the technology in health care let us discuss some major topics that have come up due to recent changes. First, what antiquated technologies is health care are still using, what new tech are they exploring, and then what security problems are we opening up and what is this all costing.
According to HIMSS Analytics organizations who achieve stage seven status no longer use paper charts. Therefore, personal patient data diagnostic results and images and clinical information and all in an electronic medical record. Since paper charting is eliminated facilities have written disaster recovery plans and protocols which are schedule tested. All patient information is available and easily shared amount interdisciplinary healthcare teams both within the organization and outside the group. Inpatient documentation of physicians reaches or is above 90%. Stored accumulated data is used to analyze trends in facility data to improve quality of care and care delivery efficiency. In reference to, the HIMSS website a low percentage of hospitals in North America and Europe have reached stage seven status. Ayat, Sharifi, & Jahanbakhsh 2017, give the example that only one hospital in Spain has reached level seven and none in the Middle
This technology fits well with as industry looking for new care models to help alleviate the financial and physical burden created by chronic diseases. Mobile health technology is allowing for a shift of care from the acute-care, hospital setting to rehabilitation centers, patient residences, and skilled nursing facilities. This becomes crucial as CMS expanded its Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program to include five conditions: chronic lung problems, heart failure, pneumonia, heart attack, and elective hip and knee replacements (Rau, 2014a). Hospitals can be penalized up to three percent of Medicare payments due to hospital readmissions that occur within thirty days of discharge. According to Rau (2014b), 18 percent of Medicare patients in 2013 were readmitted within a 30 day period costing Medicare roughly $26 billion, $17 billion of which comes from avoidable readmissions. The financial strain associated with chronic illness has catalyzed a movement toward using technology in a meaningful manner to improve health quality. Meaningful use is forcing entities to use certified electronic health records (EHR) in order to improve care coordination and quality. mHealth serves an extension of the electronic record enabling remote data capture that can be monitored in order to improve health outcomes and prevent
Meaningful use is the fifth stage of implementing EHR. Meaningful use refers to using the health records in a purposeful way to achieve the goals patient focused healthcare, population health, improving quality, and safety in healthcare. There are three stages of meaningful use which is regulated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The first is to make sure you actually have an electronic record system, the second stage is providing patients with access to their own medical records with care coordination, and the third is improving healthcare outcomes (How to Implement EHRs). This fifth stage is an incentive program and is such an important part of the plan that Medicare can actually penalize clinicians and hospitals
...s in the health industry. It is set to change the way doctors and patient’s access information as it will make information more available in a clear and efficient way.
Our clinical knowledge is expanding. The researcher has first proposed the concept of electronic health record (EHR) to gather and analyze every clinical outcome. By late 1990s computer-based patient record (CPR) replaced with the term EHR (Wager et al., 2009). The process of implementing EHR occurs over a number of years. An electronic record of health-related information on individual conforms interoperability standards can create, manage and consult with the authorized health professionals (Wager et al., 2009). This information technology system electronically gather and store patient data, and supply that information as needed to the healthcare professionals, as well as a caregiver can also access, edit or input new information; this system function as a decision support tools to the health professionals. Every healthcare organization is increasingly aware of the importance of adopting EHR to improve the patient satisfaction, safety, and lowering the medical costs.
The purpose of the Electronic Health Record is to provide a comprehensive, standardized and universal digital version of a patient 's health records. The availability of a patient 's digital health record provides health information and data for critical thinking and evidence based decision-making, aggregates patient data for quality assurance and research. The Electronic Health Record has been, "identified as a strategy for effectively and efficiently coordinating and maintaining documentation of patients health histories and as a secure method of providing more informed clinical decision making" (MNA, 2006).
From state and federal levels, the healthcare industry has come a very long way, experiencing changes along the way. The development of advanced technology that has enhanced the quality of healthcare delivery systems will help all patients to be able to benefit. Doctors are able to access patient records at a faster rate and respond to their patients in a much more timely fashion. E-mail, electronic transfer of records and telemedicine will give all patients and physicians the tools needed to be more efficient, deliver quality care and deliver quality telecommunication at a faster pace than before.