Introduction
Accomplishing the intentions of Meaningful Use Program is a very challenging duty to many health care providers (Dowling, 2014). In the health care sector, the term Meaningful Use refers to the processing of population and health statistics into, EHR, an electronic health record. The above process aims to enhance safety, improve value of care, and decrease health inequalities. Evidence-based approaches may aid health care personnel to accomplish these intentions and assimilate their electronic health data into everyday workflow.
The article below offers a synopsis of the platform and a study of its effects on nurses, nursing, national health policy, patient outcomes, and population health. The assignment also provides evidence-based approvals for the collection of supplementary conditions. In this section, many approaches are identified. These strategies can help health care personnel address obstacles encountered in stage 1 and 2 of Meaningful Use. When no additional criteria are needed, an evidenced-based rationale is offered. The assignment concludes by highlighting insights gained during the lesson.
An overview of the program
Meaningful Use is utilized in increasing efficiency in health care, refining clinical results, improving population health outcomes, and promoting transparency. The program is also aimed at empowering personnel and coming up with robust research records on health systems.
When properly designed and implemented, EHRs offer extensive statistics to both health care institutions and clients. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, CMS, describes the established principles, which oversee the utilization of HER as Meaningful Use data (Schneider, 2011). The institution enables health care providers and clinics to receive inducement payments for collecting these statistics. During the year 2012, the US government allocated $27 billion as incentives to clinics and health care providers to support the program (Ault, 2012). Despite the incentives, it should be noted that satisfying the numerous phases of Meaningful Use intentions is a test for health care providers. However, with appropriate assistance health care institutions can acquire new approaches to aid meet these purposes and assimilate an EHR scheme into their everyday workflow.
Authorized health care specialists and institutions ought to demonstrate Meaningful Use of licensed EHRs to meet the requirements for an incentive payment. Health care providers and hospitals, which qualify for the program, do not need to prove to Meaningful Use in their initial year of involvement. However, they ought to accept, implement, or renovate an EHR to obtain inducement compensation from their state.
In 2011, health care providers began to test the utilization of Stage 1 parameters (Ault, 2012). The goal from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was to prove Stage 1 use for two years. Equally, Stage 2 was to be implemented for two years. Stage 3 was to be implemented for one year. However, the exhibition of Stage 2 delayed up to the year 2014. Execution of Stage 3 has been postponed to the year 2017. The postponement was initiated to give health care providers a period to acquire proficient EHRs. The time also permits CMS adequate time to appraise public remarks on the preliminary Stage 3 suggestions. Owing to these interruptions, several health care providers may operate an extra year in a particular phase. Compensations for attaining the Meaningful Use intentions differ with respect to the year the practice initiated the program.
Numerous obstacles to implementing the program exist. The most common difficulties are minimal comprehension of the program’s benefits, shortage of time to get accustomed to a new system, and the high budget of implementation of the program. Furthermore, health care providers do not have adequate technical experts to handpick an appropriate EHR system to satisfy their health care needs. To boost the implementation of both EHR and Meaningful Use, health care personnel ought to be aware of supervisory language and intent. As such, EHR execution should be a transformation program implemented by change managers.
Analyzes of the implications of meaningful use core criteria
As indicated above, the adoption of EHRs is very useful because it standardizes and collects health data allowing easy monitoring and recovery. The primary goals for executing Meaningful Use general principles are as follows:
- Enhancing care quality
- Boosting safety and efficacy with reduced health inequalities
- Engagement of patients and families
- Improving care management
- Improving population and public health
- Improving confidentiality and security protections for personal health information
According to The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, the execution of the program will influence health care and decrease the nationwide expenditure on health care (Ronald, 2015). Therefore, all nurses and physicians are obligated to engage in initiatives to implement the program and contribute in operative coding to simplify the recovery of medical data.
Several Meaningful Use necessities affect patients. As such, they offer clients with a better access to their health data. Equally, they enhance patients’ engagement and cooperation with their health care providers. The program enables customers to obtain automated notices about supplement care or retrieve their electronic prints of their health data after their appointments (Ronald, 2015). Based on the above, it is apparent that the program is useful because patients are experiencing affirmative variations in the manner through which they interrelate with the health care system.
Other Meaningful Use requirements assist health care provider come up with more informed choices, provide better care, and generate better efficiencies (Rabius, 2013). Through this, the tools have aided in eliminating duplicative testing, reducing severe drug reactions, and improving provider collaboration. In the future, more health care providers and patients will partake in the EHR programs. Through this, it is expected that the influence of Meaningful Use will expand benefiting the patients and the health care stakeholders.
More awareness should be created to address the challenges of adopting Meaningful Use. Organizations must change the way their personnel and the system behave to increase responsiveness of the evidence-based practices that underline Meaningful Use (Ronald, 2015). Usually, implementing the program in a health care organization leads to many changes. Therefore, hospital executives must plan how to implement evidence-based practices that underline Meaningful Use. Similarly, organizations can build a partnership to increase awareness. Through this, health care personnel, health care executives, and researchers are brought together with the aim of coming up with a common perception and a sense of the program.
Evidence-based recommendations
Dowling (2014) asserts that Meaningful Use criteria implies to definite topographies of an EHR program, which health care providers are supposed to use if they are to be eligible for the inducements offered. Dowling (2014) believes that no additional criteria should be added because it has been proven that accomplishing the intentions of some principles is a very challenging duty to many health care providers. Ault (2012) asserts that before other criteria are added the stakeholders must ensure that the current purposes are satisfied. Similarly, more standards will make the program very complicated to implement.
Rabius (2013) suggest that in spite of widespread distribution of the Meaningful Use criteria, it is worrying to note that there is a considerable disparity in their applications across the health care centers. Rationales for the discrepancy are multifaceted and may comprise of dissimilarities in guideline acquaintance, provider education, and devices and procedures to make sure that information is recorded and documented (Rabius, 2013). Ronald (2015) claims that health care type, size, and setting have been found to be having a relationship with conformity rates. Additionally, other health care factors such as clinician leadership and managerial support might affect the reliable use of evidence-based procedures of care aimed at enhancing Meaningful Use criteria (Ronald, 2015). Concerning this, health care providers should work with the existing principles (Ronald, 2015). Randall (2014) suggests more measures may be adopted in the future when current objectives have been attained.
Concluding statements
Notably, Meaningful Use implies to the processing of population and health statistics into an EHR with the aim of enhancing safety and value of care and decreasing health inequalities. The program is utilized in enhancing efficiency in health care, refining clinical results, improving population health outcomes, and promoting transparency. The execution of the program progresses health care and decreases the nationwide expenditure on health care. Therefore, all nurses and physicians are obligated to engage in initiatives to implement the platform and contribute to operative coding to simplify the recovery of medical data. Currently, no additional criteria should be added because it has been proven that realizing the intentions of some principles is a very challenging duty to many health care providers. Before, other criteria are added the stakeholders must ensure that the current intentions are satisfied. Similarly, more standards will make the program very complicated to implement. Through the above assignment, I learned that Meaningful Use enhances care quality and boost safety of medical records.
References
Ault, A. (2012). Stage 2 Meaningful Use Rule Pushes Start of Incentives to 2014. Family Practice News 42 (1), 1-40.
Dowling, R. (2014). Meaningful Use: An Update on the Electronic Health Record Incentive Program for Urologists. Urology Practice 1(2), 67-73.
Rabius, V. (2013). Meaningful Use Provides A Meaningful Opportunity. Cancer 120(4), 464-468.
Randall, D. (2014). Policy Challenges of Electronic Health Records and Meaningful Use. Journal Of Health & Medical Informatics, 05(04).
Ronald, T. (2015). Factors Associated With Meaningful Use Incentives In Children’s Hospitals. Pediatrics 135 (6), 20-22.
Schneider, M. (2011). Attestation Begins For Meaningful Use Program. Skin & Allergy News 42(5), 8-9.