Stages, Measures, Implementation Barriers and Challenges of Meaningful Use (MU)

Implementing Meaningful Use
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Implementing Meaningful Use
Introduction
The Office of National Coordinator (ONC) created a change momentum via continuous legislation requirements and measures under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) to realize the goal of mitigating healthcare costs while increasing quality. Within the HITECH Act framework, Meaningful Use (MU) is emerged as an incentive initiative to promote certified Electronic Health Records (EHRs) systems usage among healthcare professionals and medical facilities to improve patient care experiences. MU is important because it improved the sharing of patient information electronically between healthcare professionals, insurers, and patients to advance patient care healthcare information technology as an entity and enhance data security. This report discusses the three stages of MU, including data capturing and sharing, advancement of clinical processes and outcomes improvement, including the implementation barriers and challenges at each stage.
Meaningful Use Stages and Measures
Stage One: Data Capture and Sharing
The first stage of MU was executed in 2011. It provided the ground for the incentive initiatives by creating the guidelines for capturing electronic data and sharing information within a standardized plan to facilitate better coordination of care processes. This stage also emphasized a patient-centered care framework where clients and their families assume a central role in decision-making concerning their care and treatment interventions (Anz, 2021). In this way, stage one improved patient care coordination, thus enhancing the population’s wellbeing and health outcomes.
Healthcare organizations are also expected to utilize EHRs at an organization-wide level to secure MU economic incentives within this framework. This included electronically capturing client data and using that information to monitor health conditions, combine testing and imaging findings, streamline sharing of client information to various providers, promote quality measures, and employ information to empower patients and their families to participate in care delivery processes. Healthcare facilities should also record patient information electronically and have active lists of client diagnoses, allergies, medications, drug-allergy measures, including other vital statistics (Anz, 2021). Further, healthcare providers must meet medical orders, offer electronic health record copies, and document patient discharge instructions.
Stage one measures are categorized into three. First, a primary set of fifteen measures that should be attained via organized information entry, including electronic provider order entry for medical guidelines, patient demographics, recording of vital manifestations and health risk status, updated medication/problem/allergy lists, and as well as a printed medical prompt provided to the client during the respective visits (Reisman, 2017). Second, there is an extra menu of 24 measures, of which 19 should be attained via structured data entry, including medication reconciliation, patient electronic access, and patient-s...