Meaningful Use for Nurses: Implications and Recommendations
Dianne Rinehardt
Chamberlain College of Nursing
NR-512: Nursing Informatics
February 2016
Meaningful Use for Nurses: Implications and Recommendations
The 21st century is experiencing a major paradigm shift due to the technological advances of the latter part of the 20th century. Technology and technological innovation has pushed the envelope of access to information to unprecedented levels. During the early years of the 21st century, the political establishment sought to encourage technological advances in the medical field through financial incentives and legislation. The HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical and Health) Act provided significant funds to encourage the implementation of electronic health records (EHRs) for organizations that could show meaningful use (MU) of EHRs using a predetermined set of criteria. This paper will discuss how the term “meaningful use” is defined, the implication that meaningful use will have on the nursing profession and potential recommendations for meaningful use as applicable for nursing.
Meaningful Use
Meaningful use, as described in HITECH Act portion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA, 2009), occurs when a medical provider or organization uses a certified EHR system and in doing so improves quality, safety, efficiency of care and reduces health disparities. Additionally, the use of this technology would empower patients and caregivers, improve care coordination, improve population and public health all while maintaining the privacy and security of patient health information (HealthIT.gov, 2015). The MU criteria was added to emphasize that the adoption of EHRs was not the end goal but the integration of the systems implied their use and that such use would translate into better outcomes.
The HITECH Act provides for a transitional period which is separated into multiple phases, each with...