Meaningful use has improved care coordination by creating an electronic version of sharing medical records amongst involved providers in a multitude of healthcare systems. According to Joneidy & Burke, meaningful use is the use of digital medical and health records that are used to improve quality, safety and efficiency of patient health information and a continuum for delivery of care. (2018). Electronic Health Records (EHRs) provide real time, current information that is quick to retrieve and available to all interdisciplinary teams in the healthcare delivery for the patient. Meaningful use was initially instituted to work with EHRs as an incentive-based program through Medicare. (Health IT, 2021). Hospitals have to demonstrate meaningful use each year in order to prevent Medicare payment adjustments and thereby loss of revenue for the hospital.
Meaningful use has improved care coordination between healthcare settings and can have a profound impact on patient care and the delivery of efficient high-quality care. There were five objectives according to Health IT, these being improving quality, safety efficiency and reduce health disparities (2021). The other priorities were to increase patient engagement, improve care coordination, expand population/public health and provide privacy and protection of personal health information. EHR and meaningful use has also realigned work flow, made charting concise and simplified as it is under one system for all providers to work through (CMS, 2021). This is especially important for those that are in a variety of health care clinics and interdisciplinary services. The patients EHR provides information that can potentially reduce medication errors, duplication of tests and procedures while providing patient safety in a high-quality healthcare delivery system (Penner, 2017).
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (2021). Electronic health records. https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/E-Health/EHealthRecords
Health IT. (2021). What is meaningful use. HealthIT.gov. https://www.healthit.gov/faq/what-meaningful-use
Joneidy, S, Burke, M. (2018). Towards a Deeper Understanding of Meaningful Use in Electronic Health Records. Health Records. Health Info Library. https://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12233
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