Meaningful usage of health information technology HIT

Meaningful use constitutes a key health information technology project driver as it impacts all players in the health care sector. By 2016, 95% of hospitals has demonstrated meaningful use of HIT through the CMS HER programs. Meaningful use achievement has appreciable effects on extent and long-run health information workflows. HIT acceptance and implementation necessitates substantial state support, robust federal support, and an alliance between state governors, Medicaid officers, and state CIOs (chief information officers) joining hands across and within borders for ensuring state-developed governing regulations and technological infrastructures jointly support the Act’s spirit and effect intra- and inter- state information flow. Incorporation of HIT into clinical practice has led to meaningful improvements when achieved thoughtfully for instance, $27 billion gained from the fulfilling CMS incentive scheme conditions. HIT provides professionals with necessary information that facilitates the delivery of more coordinated and improved care, creating the ideal opportunity to eventually bend the healthcare sector’s cost curve for instance, outpatient departments that use EHR have a new of $142 million in savings.

How can one define health information technology’s (HIT’s) “meaningful use”?What is the reason underlying its significance for healthcare providers as well as patients, research scholars, policymakers and taxpayers? What steps should healthcare organizations and doctors take to conform to meaningful use conditions and when? What penalties and incentives are associated with meaningful use conformity? Lastly, how does practitioners’ health information technology system interoperability impact meaningful use achievement ability?

The HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health) Act, enacted under the 2009 ARRA(American Recovery and Reinvestment Act), provided $27 billion to qualified healthcare organizations and practitioners who implemented HIT and, with it, improved patient care delivery using Medicaid and Medicare. The mere implementation of electronic health record systems (EHRs) wasn’t enough (Freedman, 2009). To become eligible for monetary incentives, the Act mandated healthcare organizations and practitioners’ demonstration of efficient certified technology use, engagement in information interchange, and reporting on care quality measures indicated by the HHS (Health and Human Services) Departmental Secretary. The aforementioned “meaningful use” principles are detailed under the Medicaid and Medicare EHR Incentive initiatives under CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid).

Meaningful use constitutes a key health information technology project driver as it impacts all players in the health care sector. Owing to meaningful use criteria’s extensive scope and complexity, its attainment offers realistic opportunities for the employment of project management techniques. By 2016, 95% of hospitals has demonstrated meaningful use of HIT through the CMS EHR programs. Under guidelines for meaningful use, for instance, physician clinics that implement HIT may be entitled to earn several thousand dollars as governmental incentive (Adler-Milstein & Jha, 2017), thereby creating the need for more HIT projects. Such monetary incentives aim at promoting the institution of nationwide EHR network. Hence, meaningful use makes the need for health IT projects a regulatory prerequisite. By march 2014, 370,000 providers in meaningful use programs had received $22.9 billion in EHR incentive programs. As of June 2015, 75% of physicians in the EHR system and 80% of Priority Primary Care Providers reported having met the meaning use criteria (Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, 2017).

Meaningful use achievement has appreciable effects on extant and long-run health information workflows. Consider, for instance, e-prescribing: HITECH supports meaningful use through the institution of disincentives and incentives for encouraging healthcare organization implementation of specialized software facilitating electronic transmission of prescriptions by physicians to pharmacists instead of handwritten prescriptions, saving $142 billion (Freedman, 2009; Jones et al., 2014). Once again, here, meaningful use influenced by technological advancements makes the need for health IT projects a regulatory prerequisite.
Health IT aids attempts at reshaping the system of documentation, exchange and use of health information, via appropriate funding and infrastructure never before seen by the electronic health domain. HIT is really capable of acting beyond mere talk of what ought to be done; it displays real promise when it comes to establishing and implementing changes in the system (Wager, Lee & Glaser, 2017). Health IT addresses and supports the entire electronic infrastructure needed for safe, secure e-health dataflow. It aims at engaging all stakeholders (hospital systems, physician practices, community health clinics, patients, payers and public health systems), thereby facilitating ongoing public debates and discussions relating to healthcare issues requiring more advanced technology approaches.

Health IT initiatives demonstrate the ability to initiate unexpected partnerships and collaborations, with 85% of stakeholders (Pennic, 2012) joining hands to acquire new skills and knowledge from one another, deploy novel technologies, and map the way to an integrated health community founded on cooperation, communication, access and transparency. HIT acceptance and implementation necessitates substantial state support, robust federal support, and an alliance between state governors, Medicaid officers, and state CIOs (chief information officers) joining hands across and within borders for ensuring state-developed governing regulations and technological infrastructures jointly support the Act’s spirit and effect intra- and inter- state information flow (Wager et al., 2017; Adler-Milstein & Jha, 2017).

The American healthcare system’s e-evolution goes well beyond the implementation of IT. It necessitates cooperation, support and patience on all involved entities’ part; this includes clinical staff, admin staff, patients, payers, pharmacies, laboratories, and other external business associates.

HIT personnel are largely segregated into two clusters: production support and development. The former concentrates on client support while the latter’s role is maintaining and further developing the system. While the two clusters collaborate to identify problems, solutions, and needs, the division of responsibility between the two would be more effective (Jamieson, 2014), as it would ensure customer support resources are protected and developmental initiatives remain on track.

In case of development problems needing vendor input, HIT personnel (particularly the helpdesk) are generally in charge of facilitating vendor-user communication. This role entails summarization or analysis of vendor usage numbers and existing user complaints, followed by attempts at refining user requirements. Further, Health IT personnel can partner with vendors and ascertain the effect of system upgrades or updates on users, followed by notifying users of such plans (Wager et al., 2017). Diverse Health IT personnel groups can employ diverse user-vendor communication systems.

Incorporation of HIT into clinical practice can lead to meaningful improvements when achieved thoughtfully and with dedication rather than with the mere aim of fulfilling CMS incentive scheme conditions, for instance, $27 billion gained from the fulfilling CMS incentive scheme conditions.. Implementing fresh information systems necessitates adoption of novel processes and task, responsibility and role redefinition. Though such a transformation is challenging, it is accompanied by the promise of substantial care quality gains and administrative and clinical efficiencies.

Meaningful use stresses the requirement of fulfilling patient requirements, delineated by Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New System for the 21st Century, the IOM’s (Institute of Medicine) landmark work (Baker, A. (2001). The work emphasizes the delivery of safe, prompt, patient-focused, equitable, effective and efficient healthcare. The very technology capable of making practitioners eligible for incentives linked to meaningful use may facilitate PCMH (patient-centered medical home) status achievement or care model implementation. 

Optimal HIT utilization broadly incorporates meaningful use within enhanced care contexts like PCMHs and ACOs (accountable care organizations). HIT provides professionals with necessary information that facilitates the delivery of more coordinated and improved care, creating the ideal opportunity to eventually bend the healthcare sector’s cost curve (Geonnotti et al., 2015).
Latest healthcare incentives and policies promote HIT adoption within primary care settings. On account of obstacles like lack of staff and practitioner training in the area of quality improvement (QI) and data analysis, capital, time, and unawareness of the prospective advantages of HIT utilization for quality improvement, similar efforts for encouraging and supporting expanded HIT use in this regard are essential. Taking into account the above obstacles, the steps listed below are suggested for collaboration between primary care practitioners, facilitators, decision-making authorities and IT developers, for increasing HIT use for quality improvement within primary care settings (Higgins et al., 2015):

· Share information on best practices and exemplary uses for inspiring and guiding primary care centers attempting at creating an organizational culture which embraces HIT use for QI.

· Continue developing and refining technology for producing interoperable, high-functioning HIT tools.

· Empower professionals and other workforce members in primary care settings by providing them with requisite skills and knowledge for attaining maximized use of HIT for QI.

· Increase access to monetary and other change incentives and supports.

· Provide tools and guidance for aiding primary care institutions in redesigning workflows and processes for accommodating efficient HIT use for QI.

This table summarizes how meaningful use has contributed to quality improvement, with reference to EHR (Pennic, 2012; Adler-Milstein & Jha, 2017).
Patient satisfaction
Percentage

With doctor using EHR
92%

Rarely found prescription not ready
90%

Made obtaining medical services easier
76%

Fewer medication errors
63%

HIT has long been anticipated to hold a vital key to care delivery efficiency as well as quality. At this point, the following litany ought to be called to mind: HIT will be at the foundation of a nationwide, secure, interoperable system for health information interchange between all patient care sites; it will stimulate competition and drive quality; it will do away with the mistakes caused by misfiled papers and illegible handwriting; and it will do away with redundant testing. Finally, it will facilitate the creation of a learning healthcare system characterized by measurable patient health results and ongoing improvements to quality.