Meaningful Use of Ehrs
Meaningful Use of Health Information Technology in a Primary Care Practice
Kristin Rinn
University of Colorado Denver School of Nursing
Leaders in health care have two fundamental goals. The first is to provide high quality, evidence based patient care. The second is to be active engagers in the transformation of the health care delivery system. The ability to measure the quality of patient care efficiency and accurately to make the right decisions for the patient is the inherent goal of the use of the electronic health record (EHR). The EHR is currently underutilized in the United States, although the use has been progressively increasing over the last decade. Between 2009 and 2010, the percentage of office based physicians reporting having systems that met the criteria of a basic or a fully functional system increased by14.2% and 46.4%, respectively. However, the United States is still far behind other developed countries (Hsiao, 2010). “Meaningful use” is a term that was defined in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. It consists of three main components. 1) The use of a certified electronic health record (EHR) in a meaningful manner, for example, e-prescribing 2) The use of certified EHR technology for electronic exchange of health information to improve quality of care, and 3) The use of certified EHR technology to submit clinical quality and other measures (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, n.d.). Meaningful use requires using the EHR for structured data collection, e-prescribing, health information exchange, clinical decision support, patient engagement, security assurance, and quality reporting. The goal of the Act is to get all health care providers on board with the meaningful use of electronic health records for two main reasons: 1) To ensure patient safety by reduction of errors through improved access of health information, e-prescribing, and
Kristin Rinn
University of Colorado Denver School of Nursing
Leaders in health care have two fundamental goals. The first is to provide high quality, evidence based patient care. The second is to be active engagers in the transformation of the health care delivery system. The ability to measure the quality of patient care efficiency and accurately to make the right decisions for the patient is the inherent goal of the use of the electronic health record (EHR). The EHR is currently underutilized in the United States, although the use has been progressively increasing over the last decade. Between 2009 and 2010, the percentage of office based physicians reporting having systems that met the criteria of a basic or a fully functional system increased by14.2% and 46.4%, respectively. However, the United States is still far behind other developed countries (Hsiao, 2010). “Meaningful use” is a term that was defined in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. It consists of three main components. 1) The use of a certified electronic health record (EHR) in a meaningful manner, for example, e-prescribing 2) The use of certified EHR technology for electronic exchange of health information to improve quality of care, and 3) The use of certified EHR technology to submit clinical quality and other measures (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, n.d.). Meaningful use requires using the EHR for structured data collection, e-prescribing, health information exchange, clinical decision support, patient engagement, security assurance, and quality reporting. The goal of the Act is to get all health care providers on board with the meaningful use of electronic health records for two main reasons: 1) To ensure patient safety by reduction of errors through improved access of health information, e-prescribing, and