Transforming Nursing and Healthcare Through Technology Medicine Essay

Meaningful Use of Electronic Health Records
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Meaningful Use of Electronic Health Records
The use of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) in many healthcare organizations in the United States (US) has been greatly championed over the last decade. This has been through the passing of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act to encourage healthcare organizations to implement and use EHRs. Nurses have reported that they are more satisfied with the use of EHR when it is meaningful (McBride, Tietze, Robichaux, Stokes, & Weber, 2018). Meaningful use of EHRs refers to the use of EHRs technology in promoting patient safety, improving efficiency and quality of care, and reducing health disparities among diverse populations (Joneidy & Burke, 2018). Other outcomes linked with the meaningful use concept include enhancing the privacy and security of medical information for all patients, improving coordination of care and population health, and promoting patient and family engagement. According to McBride, Tietze, Robichaux, Stokes, and Weber (2018), by 2017, the United States had achieved a 95% saturation level when it comes to the use of EHRs. This is a positive direction towards improving patient outcomes. However, there are some unintended consequences associated with the meaningful use of EHRs. This paper explores the legal, financial, and ethical issues that may stem from the meaningful use of EHRs. It also discusses how these issues might hinder the successful implementation of meaningful use of EHRs and how organizations can effectively and meaningfully use EHRs.
Legal, Finacial, and Ethical Issues
The meaningful use of EHRs in improving the clinical outcomes of patients has been highly documented. However, there are some legal, financial, and ethical issues associated with this legislation
Legal Issues
The first legal issue stems from the sharing of patients' information. As revealed by Ozair, Jamshed, Sharma, and Aggarwal (2015), confidentiality and privacy should be enhnaced whenever the patient's information is being shared for medical purposes among healthcare providers. Healthcare providers accessing or sharing information under the meaningful use concept should have the legal authority to do so. They should also comply with the existing state and federal laws that protect data privacy and security. Recognizing the laws as well as organizational policies relating to the meaningful use of EHRs is crucial in addressing these legal challenges. The second legal challenge stems from documentation of health information. As revealed by McBride, Tietze, Robichaux, Stokes, and Weber (2018), some EHR systems are designed in a way that can result in unintentional documentation of information that is beyond the nurses’ scope of practice. This can result in legal issues because nursing documentations are legal documents. In some cases, such documents can be used in legal cases and put the nurses at risk. The legal liability involved in documentation of clinical findings in EHRs is an issue linked with the meaningful use of EHRs arising from the use of templates in EHR systems, changes or late documentation as well as copy and pasting clinical info...