Meaningful Use

The increasing number of healthcare providers is embracing the use of technology in the provision of better healthcare. In order to promote optimum patient care, Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act was passed in 2009, and it set the pace for the transformation of Healthcare. Meaningful Use is an aspect of HITECH that defines the guidelines and regulations, which involve the automated record keeping, of the e-documentation of demographic data and other health related information, which should be familiar to the health care institutions and physicians if they want to be eligible for the incentives from the Medicaid and Medicare Centers. This essay provides an overview of the Meaningful Use, discusses its implications to various healthcare stakeholders, and provides recommendations for the Stage 1 and 2 of the Meaningful Use as in title essay.

Overview of Meaningful Use

Before the establishment of Meaningful Use, a research from the Institute of Medicine demonstrated that 98,000 Americans suffered from medical-related errors, which could have been prevented. Moreover, the research showed that there were more deaths caused by medical errors than by cancer, motor vehicles accidents, and AIDS combined. This fact encouraged the necessity to address this issue. In 2009 HITECH mandated the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology to support and synchronize efforts in order to improve the American health care by facilitating the adoption of Health Information Technology and to ensure a nationwide health information exchange. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 implemented the creation of the Meaningful Use that regulates the extent, to which healthcare providers and organizations utilize EHR.

Therefore, the general goal of Meaningful Use, is to ensure the widespread support and effective use of the Electronic Health Records systems, as well as to eventually create an arrangement and infrastructure that would improve the value, safety, and professionalism of the patient care in America. Eligible healthcare providers qualify for incentives not only by adopting her, but by also demonstrating that they are “meaningfully using” the EHR through meeting some objectives, designed to foster patient care, as it is established by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Meaningful Use is aimed at involving patients and family; improving the value and safety; reducing inequalities; improving population and public health; as well as maintaining the privacy and security of patients. There are three stages that depict Meaningful Use. The first stage has begun in 2011 and its objectives are aimed at encouraging providers to embrace electronic order records. The second stage develops the first one and emboldens the transmission of data to offices and public health supports in order to facilitate the health care procedure decisions, whereas the third stage further improves the first two stages.

Implications of Meaningful Use

Nurses and Nursing

Nurses play an influential role in the well-being of the society. Due to their unmatched ability and comprehension of the workflow, nurses play an important role in EHR. Nursing has greatly improved due to the Meaningful Use. The quality of care that nurses and nursing provide today and will provide in future is likely to increase in value. Another implication is the fact that there were key positions, created for nurses, to ensure that the electronic records are implemented, as it is expected in the menu objectives. Therefore, nurses had to familiarize themselves with technological knowledge in order to ensure that they meet the expectations of the Meaningful Use. Nurses act as links between clinicians and IT departments in hospitals. It has helped to optimize the workflow and to improve the view and perception of nursing. Many hospitals have also created positions for Chief Nursing Information Officers, which is an indication that Meaningful Use has impacted nurses positively by creating opportunities for nurses, especially for those, who know how to use technology. Last, nurses have become more competent and efficient in their practice, as they ensure that patient’s privacy and confidentiality is not violated even after the EHR is embraced.

National Health Policy

Health policy continues to be one of the most controversial issues in America. Such policies, strategies, and plans have a pivotal role in making financial decisions, establishing the country’s visions as well as in taking actions to promote and improve the healthcare. Medical plans and policies comprise one of the major components of the health care policy. One might argue that insurance providers, for example, are not affected by the Meaningful Use. However, many policies that are developed do not focus on the pay-for-performance system. It means that such programs depend heavily on providers, who use information technology and submission of data. The scholars argue that health care provider resources might appear due to the HIT implementation. Thus, the costs are likely to shift to the health plans providers. Economic, political, and cultural aspects of the national health policy have also been affected by the Meaningful Use. In order to encourage HIT adoption, the federal government has increased their funding to ensure that all spheres are targeted by HIT. Cultural issues such as traditional and religious beliefs also require the education of the masses, which subsequently increases the costs of the government.

Patient Outcomes

Meaningful Use continues to promote outcomes that are beneficial for patients. For instance, patients can easily access their medical records and effectually address to several care providers. In New York’s Catholic Health, for example, the creation of patient portals has simplified the care process for patients, as they can check and correct details in their personal medical records. Therefore, once arduous and usually exasperating process of scheduling patient appointments, ordering prescriptions, and refilling, now requires just a few mouse-clicks. If better decisions are to be made, patients need to be involved, and Meaningful Use has made it possible. Patients can easily obtain continuous follow-up service, which is a positive implication of the Meaningful Use. For instance, over 190 million copies of e-prescriptions were submitted to patients by qualified health care providers in 2015. Special reminders for patients, who are older than 65 or younger than 5, are also a direct benefit of the Meaningful Use.

Population Health

As a part of the Improve Public and Population Health domain, the first stage of the Meaningful Use encourages providers to enter electronic data and information to the immunization and vaccination registries and also to submit automated syndrome investigation data to the related health agencies. This requirement has several implications to the health of the population. First, electronic reporting of the laboratory results promotes prompt identification and prevention of the communicable diseases. Second, Meaningful Use ensures vaccine coverage, hence promoting public and population health. By encouraging electronic reporting and sharing of the syndrome surveillance results, health care providers can act promptly. For instance, this surveillance was imperative for the quick response to the H1N1 influenza. Thus, contagious diseases can be prevented with the help of the data exchanges. In New York, for example, public health officials launched a program to control EHR and to promptly send public health warnings to the clinicians. Last, Meaningful Use has helped to increase the focus on the instituting population health and improved the focus of the community health maintenance. Data quality and information sharing have thus taken a new importance.

Recommendations

An in-depth analysis shows that the first two stages have effectively facilitated the achievement of the Meaningful Use goals and objectives. It is evident that the main criteria sets have been covered. For instance, EHR adoption is a complex process, so that the criteria outlined in Stage 1 give the room for other healthcare providers to gradually adopt the process. The two stages aim at promoting health information exchange, and, hence, it is relatively easy for providers to follow the criteria set. These two stages also demonstrate the importance of patient and family involvement in the quality care. Catholic Health, for example, explains that the requirements for two stages have effectively guided their practice. As a result, the quality of the care, received by their patients, has gradually improved. Information exchange among professionals has also been developed in two steps. There is no recommendation to remove any of the requirements for the stages. However, it would be useful if a requirement demonstrated that providers should earn incentives for normal clinical patterns rather than just meet criteria for using HER. It would ensure that merits are encouraged and that the potential value is exploited.

Insight

This paper has provided an overview of the Meaningful Use and discussed the implications of this strategy to different parties. Reading, researching, and working on this assignment has informed me about the concept of Meaningful Use. In the beginning, I hardly realized why doctors insisted on having information of their clients in an electronic format. I thought it was a way the government extracted and collected information about its population. Of course, this thought was caused by the rumor that the government is always watching us. I also thought that the insurance companies have found a loophole, which they could exploit in order to gather information about their clients. However, my thoughts were very misleading. I have learned that Meaningful Use functions for the well-being of the entire society. If there is a need to manage diseases, to improve the quality of care, or to lower the costs then Meaningful Use is pertinent. I have also learned that as a graduate student I need to recognize the role of HIT in nursing and the importance of mastering the technology. It will not only make me competent in my profession, but will also create more opportunities to improve the quality of care, which I offer to my clients.

In conclusion, Meaningful Use continues to develop the healthcare in America. EHR addresses medical errors, which have resulted in uncountable deaths among the American citizens. It is evident that the majority of the Meaningful Use requirements are centered towards benefitting the patients. Undeniably, there are numerous implications of the Meaningful Use to the nurses and nursing, patient outcomes, population, public health, and national health incomes. It is anticipated that the increased embrace of EHR will improve the American health care as well as increase its productivity and revenues.