Assessing Meaningful Use in Stage Two to Improve Quality of Care - Essay Example

Assessing Meaningful Use in Stage Two to Improve Quality of Care Zelalem Amare HCAP_4900 Dr. Elizabeth Brown April 28, 2015 Introduction The national effort to promoting and enhancing a meaningful adoption and utilization of the electronic health records (EHRs) is underway. The utilization of these information and technological systems is essential for improving the patients care quality as they enhances the safety of the patients by preventing the occurrence of medical errors, as well as the associated adverse reactions resulting from the errors. According to health industry leaders, the utilization of the Electronic health records is essential to enhance the safety of the patients through the prevention of medical errors, errors in assessment and surveillance as well as minimize the danger of harm associated with the errors. Among the hospital errors that take place every day in the healthcare setting, include errors during drug prescription, errors during treatment with wrong drugs prescribed, procedural errors, diagnostic and administrative errors that will easily be addressed. Moreover, the utilization of the electronic health information systems is fundamental to enabling a seamless flow of information throughout the mediation management system. The establishment and enactment of the information and communication technology is one of the most recent developments in the healthcare sector. This innovation is supposed to have an essential impact on the organization of the healthcare facilities; patients care, the performance of the healthcare practitioners and treatment management options once fully adopted. However, a seamless adoption of health care facilities accompanied by proper policies and guidelines seems to be hindering their appropriate use in this health care setting. Stage two assessment to Improve Quality of Care More than half of the healthcare facilities in the United States have at least a basic electronic health record system but the stage two criteria of adoption remains as a great challenge for most of the facilities. Therefore, it is important to assess their use in stage two meaningfully in an effort of enhancing the patients care. According to Julia DesRoches, et al. (2014) the adoption process among major facilities has been slow and the patient’s adoption of the systems was even greater than the facilities did with electronic systems such as the electronic cards. While there is a common sequence underlying the rate of electronic systems adoption, the rate at which the systems will be followed to the letter will depend on the nature and characteristics of the facilities. However, in ensuring a higher rate of adoption, penalties will be asserted by the end of 2015 if the health care facilities fail to meet the meaningful criteria. According to further information that was presented, there was a rise in the system adoption with around 60 percent of the facilities having some basic systems. Most of the larger facilities have been able to meet stage two meaningfully under the criteria with only 6 percent successfully meeting the criteria. The rural hospitals and the small hospitals, however, continue to lag behind due to the inadequacy of resources in the process. The United States deliver health care system is in the middle of an enormous change process in enhancing the way the health care providers and hospitals monitor, share and document health information in the care delivery process. Part of the transition entails a wholesome even shift from paper-based records to the adoption of the electronic health records. According to Chun-Ju Hsiao (2012), there is positive evidence e of progression of the physician and care facilities in utilizing the systems. There has been an increase in the numbers of the physicians that were reported to intend to participate in a meaningful use of the incentives. About 13% of all office-based physicians reported that they both intended to participate in meaningful based incentives and had EHR systems in place. From the findings, 42 percent of the physician care facilities were able to all the federal stage one meaningful utilization criteria but only 5 percent had the ability of meeting the broader stage set of the stage two criteria. Therefore, the assessment of the stage two-adoption criteria is essential in determining the adoption rate in an effort of analyzing some of the measures to be undertaken in facilitating the process. According to Nicolas, (2011), a recession and growing financial crisis transformed fantasy into reality when President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and HITECH was passed into law. As a result, Medicare incentive payments were agreed to be paid to non-hospital-based doctors and eligible hospitals. However, HITECH provides that too in order to qualify for such payments; the provider must make a meaningful use of certified EHR technology. A major objective of the HITECH Act is to support the diffusion of the electronic health systems in enhancing quality care. In an effort to ensuring that health care facilities benefit fully from the program, it is crucial to assess the stages adoption rate of these systems. In this regards, it has established a certification program to certify EHR systems adoption. With over 30 billion shillings of incentives available for the utilization of the electronic health records, it is important to determine the extent at which the US hospitals are responding to the incentives through electronic systems utilization that meet the Medicare meaningful use criteria. The Medicare program has been involved in providing aggregate incentives, but there is a gap in determining the utilization of the incentives across the health care setting. From Medicare information, there has been a substantial increase in the rate of the system adoption over the years. However, the rise is not similarly linear across all the hospitals as some care facilities are still lagging behind. The public and nonprofit hospitals seemed to be lagging behind in the electronic system utilization and come to the end of 2015, there will be penalties that will be imposed by the facilities that will lack to meet the stipulated criteria’s (DesRoches, Catherine& Bates, 2013). Thus, the assessment of a meaningful stage two process of adoption of the systems is vital. Such facilities need to ensure that they support the program to ensure quality care delivery to improve patients care. Conclusion The national effort to promoting and enhancing a meaningful adoption and utilization of the electronic health records (EHRs) is underway. The utilization of these information and technological systems is a crucial step in improving the patients care quality as EHR systems play an essential role in enhancing the safety of the patients by preventing the occurrence of medical errors, as well as the associated adverse reactions resulting from the errors. Thus, these systems are essential to improving the quality of care delivery. As health care is a global concern, the development of universal policies can be a difficult task as a result of the variance in health information access, health technological assess, literacy levels and final challenges. In fact, technological implementation in the health care systems makes the task more difficult. Therefore, it is important to assess the implementation of the electronic health record systems to enhance Unisom towards the attainment of a common goal. The implementation of stage 2 of the adoption process has become a great challenge with only 6 percent of the health care facilities meeting the criteria. Most small and rural hospital continues to lag behind in the process. In ensuring success in the process, a number of criteria’s have to be incorporated such as sharing of care summaries among health care providers as well as providing the patients access to their own healthcare data. This calls for attention and collaboration among EHR vendors and the establishment of new strategies to ensure that all the hospitals move forward towards the meaningful adoption of EHR systems. References Adler-Milstein, J., DesRoches, C. M., Furukawa, M. F., Worzala, C., Charles, D., Kralovec, P., ... & Jha, A. K. (2014). More than half of US hospitals have at least a basic EHR, but stage 2 criteria remain challenging for most. Health Affairs, 10-1377. DesRoches, C. M., Worzala, C., & Bates, S. (2013). Some hospitals are falling behind in meeting ‘meaningful use’criteria and could be vulnerable to penalties in 2015. Health Affairs, 32(8), 1355-1360. Hsiao, C. J., & Hing, E. (2012). Use and Characteristics of Electronic Health Record Systems Among Office-based Physician Practices, United States, 2001-2012 (pp. 1-8). US Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Terry, N. P. (2011). Certification and Meaningful Use: Reframing Adoption of Electronic Health Records as a Quality Imperative. Ind. Health L. Rev., 8, 45. Read More