An HIE (health information exchange) allows medical professionals at multiple levels access and share medical information electronically, and within the confines of HIPAA privacy laws. HIE is meant to improve efficiency, speed, quality, and cost of patient care. It is thought by some in the industry that HIE is not able to address recurring challenges associated with rapid technological advancements. The initiative for HIE is being driven by meaningful use requirements, coordination needs for new payment approaches, and federal financial incentives. While HIE has been more than twenty years in the making, it has only recently gained the majority of its support. This is because, until the recent years, HIE success has been marginal when compared to its failures and shortcomings. HIE generally started in 1990 when the Hartford Foundation began its CHMIS initiative. The was the "Community Health Management Information System" that got its start from grants to several states and cities. CHMIS provided a point of reference for data to be collected and maintained. This data provided information on demographics, clinical data, and information divided geographically. CHMIS targeted data for the stakeholders who were the primary consumers and benefactors of the data assessments. Another function of CHMIS was to facilitate billing and determine patient eligibility for cost reductions, making CHMIS a transaction system. (J Am Med Inform Assoc, 2010 ) CHMIS was a new concept, and faced many challenges that ultimately failed as a whole, but provided many learning lesson opportunities. The system was quite unaffordable, it lacked sufficient technological support, and the premise of the system caused security concerns. Lessons learned, and... ... middle of paper ... ...ficiency and effectiveness of care • Provides caregivers with clinical decision support tools • Reduces and possibly eliminates redundant / unnecessary testing • Improved reporting and monitoring of public health and related statistics • Provides a basic level of interoperability among electronic health records (EHRs) maintained by individual physicians and organizations • Hopefully will eventually reduce health related costs (HealthIT.gov, 2013) While the thought is good and outcomes still in prediction phase, the current reality is that there is still a hefty financial impact to be worked out. There will always be a safety and privacy concerns and long as new and emerging technologies continue to need integrations, and HIE will only work with long term political support and financial backing not driven by individual gain, but rather by collective collaborations.
Recommend which system is the best choice to meet meaningful use requirements in this particular setting. Both Cerner and CPSI have helped hospitals meet CMS Stage 1 and Stage 2 requirements. However, Cerner provides a modular concept that larger hospitals are using more than complete inpatient systems to achieve MU (Zieger, 2013). In 2014, EHR vendors said eight hospitals had attested to MU Stage 2, and Cerner was used twice as much as CPSI (Gregg, 2014). Concerning Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE), CPSI System had the broadest reach in community hospitals; nevertheless, the software was missing functionality and usability (KLSA Enterprises, 2010, p. 6). Therefore, CPSI’s CPOE was significantly below the market-average due to low physician satisfaction (KLAS Enterprises, 2010, p. 6). KLAS Enterprises (2010, p. 2) reported Cerner clients were happier the more they adopted CPOE.
How would you like to keep track of your personal health information record in your computer at home? The electronic data exchange was one of the goals of the government to improve the delivery and competence of the U.S. healthcare system. To achieve this plan, the U.S. Congress passed a regulation that will direct its implementation. The Department of Health and Human Services is the branch of the government that was assigned to oversee the HIPAA rules. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 is a national public law in the United States that was created to improve health insurability, prevent insurance abuse and to protect the privacy and security of a person’s health information.
Health Information Management Technology. (3rd Edition). Chicago, IL: AHIMA Press.
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 health information networks factor into the enhancement of the patient-centered management system, in that they help with the implementation of the Electronic health record. The HITECH Act for example allocated “18 billion through the Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement systems as incentives for hospitals and physicians who are meaningful users of EHR systems”(About the HITECH, n.d.). This is a beneficial way to promote the use of electronic health records and have them become universally utilized across the nation. NHIN is also an excellent network that is more widespread and contains policies as well as standards that help with the safe trade of data. NHIN is the biggest network that all other health information networks hope to achieve. The NHIN is a contributor to the expansion of the EHR and it also further improves the patient-centered management system by having the policies they have. These policies assist with keeping the information in the system safe and also helping many different entities to become a part of its use. Some of the entities involved are the Center for Disease Control and prevention, Social Security Administration, Department of Defense and Kaiser Permanente among others. Both CHIN and RHINO implement the use of electronic health record, which makes it more widespread,
While health outcomes could increase with the implementation of HIE and RHIOs, implementing such programs are not easy. The financial burden to take on such a task may be more than some organizations want to take on, however, with healthcare reform it is inevitable that all organizations must increase health outcomes and reduce costs. A well planned HIE and RHIO just may be the way to population
Meaningful Use and the EHR Many new technologies are being used in health organizations across the nation, which are being utilized to help improve the quality of health care. Electronic Health Records (EHRs) play a critical role in improving access, quality and efficiency of healthcare ("Electronic health records," 2014). In order to assist in expanding the use of EHR’s, in 2011 the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS), instituted an EHR incentive program called the Meaningful Use Program. This program was instituted to encourage and expand the use of the HER, by providing health professionals and health organizations yearly incentive payments when they demonstrate meaningful use of the EHR ("Medicare and Medicaid," 2014).
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.
Administrative Mandates, including the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, ICD-10 and HIPAA 5010, are all part of administrative simplification and the need for systems optimiza...
The EHR is a computerized health record that will take place of the paper chart. The health care information will be available to all health care providers at anytime, anywhere. The record will contain medical history, diagnosis, medications, immunization, allergies, diagnostics and lab results; from past doctors, emergency department visits, school, pharmacies, and out patient laboratories and facilities (Department of health and human services, 2014). Health care providers will be able to access evidence-based tools to aid in decision-making. EHR will also streamline workflow, and support changes in payer requirements and consumer expectations. In 2004, “the HHS secretary, Tommy Thompson appointed David Brailer as the national health information coordinator to provide: leadership for the development and nationwide implementation of a interoperable HIT infrastructure, with the goal of establishing electronic health records...
The new healthcare technology that is spreading nationwide it the EHR programs that are being implemented and updated in healthcare organizations. Government policies are in place for societies protection and privacy, it also helps to create a place where healthcare information can be utilized to its fullest potential. ONC authors’ regulations that set the standards and certification criteria EHRs must meet to assure health care professionals and hospitals that the systems they adopt are capable of performing certain functions (HealtIt, 2015).
The American Health Information Management Association is a body of health information professionals that majorly concerns itself with the improvement of the quality of medical records (Harman 104). These health data records are vital for the purposes of monitoring the progress of patients, performance improvements and for improving outcomes.
Pursuing higher education in healthcare is what I have always desired. I believe that healthcare is a field for people who deeply care about the greater good for all human kind. However, after taking various courses in the Public Health major, I have decided to venture in a different direction. Yearning for something more towards the administrative and technical side has been a focal point in my collegiate career. When I discovered Health Informatics and Information Management (HIHIM), I’ve come to the conclusion that this is the perfect path moving forward.