This article provides a solution essay to Implementing Meaningful Use Essay.
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Write a 1,200-1,500-word essay describing the electronic health records incentive programs, also known as meaningful use. It offers financial incentives and was designed to improve quality, safety, and efficiency of care through the use of electronic health records.
1. Describe the three stages of meaningful use and their measures.
2. Explain the challenges and barriers faced by facilities in implementing each stage of meaningful use. ..
Solution
Implementing Meaningful Use
In February 2009, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) through Medicare created incentive payments for the meaningful use of Electronic Health Records (EHR) technology (Dupor, 2017). ARRA identified three ways of using EHRs meaningfully beginning with prescribing using electronics, followed by getting care medication to a higher level and quality using electronics to share information. The third is the submission of medical quality. The use of Health Information Technology (HIT) and EHR usage has been on the rise and is said to benefit hospitals, healthcare professionals, and other staff in management and document services provided to patients. Despite the many benefits of EHR in modern healthcare, the rate of EHR adoption still is relatively low. Therefore, the purpose of this essay is to describe the electronic health records incentive programs or meaningful use. To achieve the goal, the essay examines the three stages of meaningful use, stimulus measures, besides exploring the challenges and barriers faced by healthcare agencies as they implement meaningful use (MU).
Description of MU
According to Duffy (2015), MU can be defined as the use of certified EHR technology in a meaningful manner, like prescribing using electronics. Information about the quality of care and additional measure should be submitted to the Health Human Services secretary by the provider utilizing qualified EHR technology. The idea of meaningful use is supported by five health outcomes priority policies: quality improvement, safety, efficiency, and reducing health disparities. The second health outcome focusses on the patients and their families. The remaining three outcomes are enhanced care coordination, assured personal health, information privacy, and population and public health improvement. Incentive payments to qualified health care providers, qualified hospitals, and critical access hospitals are given by the Medicare and Medicaid electronic health records incentive programs if they adopt, implement, improve or demonstrate meaningful use of qualified EHR technology. To facilitate improvement in quality care, health information technology needs to be used effectively by the primary care providers to increase their ability to provide care of high quality. Furthermore, patient outcomes to better standards are also enhanced. EHR facilitates the provision of better healthcare. Although their effects rely on whether the providers are using MU to the maximum potential, patient safety is secured. To achieve better care quality and protect patient safety, EHR should be used consistently and effectively by the healthcare providers as directed by meaningful use. The efficiency of care through EHRs has provided safer and prescribing, which is more reliable; it has allowed fast access to sick people records for increased coordinated care efficiency.MU simultaneously offers protection of shared electronic information with the sick and other clinicians and has provided security and privacy to patient data.
The Three Stages of MU and Their Measures
To demonstrate meaningful use, requirement sets in three stages are required to O’Neill, (2015). In stage 1, the requirement targets healthcare providers recording patients’ data and sharing the information patients only or sharing it with other professional providers. According to the Medicaid EHR incentive program, healthcare three years are required by the healthcare providers to meet stage 1. The assumption here is that in the first year of program participation, the healthcare providers adopt, implement, or raise their standards to certified EHR technology. Regardless of when Medicaid is started, healthcare providers can participate in program participation for three years under stage one.
After the completion of three years in program participation, stage 2 begins. In Stage 2 of meaningful use, similar basic strictures in stage 1 are retained. In this stage, Healthcare providers have to report on 20 objectives. Some of the measures include but are not limited to the use of computerized provider order entry for laboratory, clinical and radiology order, us electronics to prescribe, document demographic information, documents, and diagram vital sign changes, among others. The essence of Stage 2 is to retain a central hub and menu framework for MU objectives with healthcare agencies having to achieve 16 of the core objectives and three of the six menu objectives. At the same time, Stage 2 objectives are modified to rhyme with Stage 3 objectives.
In stage 3, adjustments of Medicare payments are only available to healthcare providers who are not only subjected to eligible Medicaid incentive program participation. One of the measures in these stages is that states will choose the form and behavior of reporting CQMs for their state Medicaid EHR Incentive programs focused on CMS approval. Another measure is that all healthcare providers have to use technology qualified for the 2015 edition. Also, this stage contains objectives with flexibility, for example; Care coordination through patient engagement, Exchange of health information, and reporting of public health. As Jain et al. (2015) note, Stage 3 rule’s stated goals are to avail a flexible, concise, and candid framework to simplify the MU program while seeing that provider burden is decreased and that Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs are sustainable in future. In addition to these goals, there is a need to ensure that the use of HIT promotes both health information exchange and improved patient outcomes.
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Challenges and Barriers Faced By Facilities in Implementing Each Stage of MU
One of the challenges experienced in implementing these meaningful use stages is a technical ability (Sprague, 2015). The retrieval and sending data ability of a computer throughout healthcare is influenced by age and additional factors like the practice location. The second challenge involves the cost of use where improvements of EHRs can incur higher costs making it expensive in both implementations of stages and usage. People constitute the third challenge, where not everyone has the idea of EHR implementation and usage. For example, in a typical healthcare organization, one should expect to find professionals at various stages of experience whereby even residents in training are also included. With economic incentives for residents, and many of them expecting to graduate before the monetary gains translate into program improvement, the residents are less motivated to comply with MU criteria. The result is that incomplete and fragment abound, which only adds to MU criteria’ potential non- compliance. Training may also present a challenge where, during the implementation of EHR, organizations must educate their workers, which consumes additional time, effort, and resources. In contrast, some organizations are not able to afford the cost of this training. The last challenge to be discussed is workflow break-up. Sometimes, EHR implementation can affect the workflow in an organization completely if the EHR is not put in place to achieve its purpose properly.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this essay has emphasized the potential benefits displayed by EHRs. Healthcare agencies stand to benefit even as patients enjoy optimal gains resulting from better patient and health comers. Organizations implementing MU must also be aware of the challenges and barriers that accompany the implementation of MU programs and be ready to resolve them. They continue to use evidence-based healthcare interventions that are also patient-focused.
References
Duffy, M. (2015). Nurses and the migration to electronic health records. AJN the American Journal of Nursing, 115(12), 61-66.
Dupor, B. (2017). The Recovery Act of 2009 vs. FDR’s New Deal: Which Was Bigger? Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Jain, A., Frost, J. R., Wahid, N., Atabaki, M. S., McMillan, J. E., Smith, K., & Chrusciel, M. T. P. (2015). Final Contract Report Evaluation of Stage 3 Meaningful Use Objectives: Oklahoma and the District of Columbia.
O’Neill, T. (2015, October). Primer: EHR stage 3 meaningful use requirements. In American Action Forum.
Question – Implementing Meaningful Use
Write a 1,200-1,500-word essay describing the electronic health records incentive programs, also known as meaningful use. It offers financial incentives and was designed to improve quality, safety, and efficiency of care through the use of electronic health records.
- Describe the three stages of meaningful use and their measures.
- Explain the challenges and barriers faced by facilities in implementing each stage of meaningful use.
Include three to five references, including your textbook.
Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.
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