The American Recovery And Reinvestment Act

In 2008, the American economy broke down. Known as the Global Financial Crisis, this is widely considered to be the worst financial crisis since the 1930’s when the stock market crashed and the Great Depression hit.

The vision of meaningful use was divided into three specific stages and each with its own set of core objectives. Stage one set the foundation for the EHR Incentive Programs by establishing requirements for electronic clinical data, including providing patients with electronic copies of their heath information (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid

This Stage 1 started from 2011-2012, its objective dealt with data capture and sharing, these sheets are providing these services to assist professionals and hospitals understand the requirements of each objective and demonstrate meaningful use success. This stage also allows qualified providers to receive their payment after fulfilling nine core objectives and one public health objective. The second stage of the Meaningful Use is Stage 2 started in 2014; it dealt with the advanced clinical processes. This Stage introduces new aims and measures, as well as higher entries; it also required health care providers to prolong EHR capabilities to a greater portion of their patient populations. The last stage of the Meaningful Use is Stage 3, this Stage it still in a building phase. Its objective will be focusing on improving quality, safety, efficiency, and leading to improved outcomes. Even though the details of this program have not been finalized, Meaningful Use Stage 3 will work to make the program easier to understand. It will provide the professionals (EPs) and hospitals the ability to exchange and use information between electronic health records, and improve patient outcomes. Based on the current timeline, healthcare providers have the choice to begin Stage 3 Meaningful Use in 2017 but are not permitted to use it until

In 2009, more than $30 billion dollars in incentives was allocated by congress for hospitals to institute meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs) by 2011 (Adler-Milstein, Bates, & Jha, 2011) (Murphy, 2010). The Meaningful Use Act is a complicated principle that is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) as well as the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) act.

Access the CMS website and locate information regarding the Meaningful Use Act. In 2009, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act) legislation was created to stimulate the adoption of electronic health records(EHR) and supporting technology in the United States. On Feb 17, 2009, President Obama signed HITECH into law as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) economic stimulus bill. The HITECH Act outlined the intended plans for the adoption of electronic health records through meaningful use. The CMS Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs have evolved into three stages of meaningful use with their own priorities, goals and their own final rule. Meaningful Use means “providers

Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on February 17, 2009. President Obama signed the act into law four days later. The law directed about $150 billion in new funds to the healthcare industry. It included $87 million for Medicaid, $24.7 billion to subsidize private health insurance for people who lose or have lost their jobs, $19.2 billion for health information technology, and $10 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The act also provided $650 million to support preventive medicine and wellness activities targeting health issues such as; obesity, smoking, and other risk factors for chronic diseases as well as $500 million for health professions training programs. This legislation has helped stimulate the

Stage 2 requirements are designed to promote the patient engagement by providing secure on line access to their personal health information and promoting health information exchange between providers to improve care coordination. In order for hospitals to progress to stage 2, they must have met stage 1 criteria for a full 2 years. In order for hospitals to meet requirements for stage 2 they must meet a total of 19 objectives (16 core, 3 menu). Many of these objectives require consistency and maintenance of stage 1 criteria. Cerner® features that aid in meeting stage 2 requirements for meaningful use are:

Cerner integrates patient information throughout all of the departments within a hospital setting. This program also has the ability to expand into other health care facilities within a community, such as long term care, hospice, and home health (Cerner, 2015). Cerner offers community hospitals solutions in their “Software as a Service” model. Cerner will host the software program, provide upgrades, and monitor performance to ensure stability. This will allow community hospitals to have a predictable cost for the software (Cerner, 2015). Another advantage of this system is the “Smart Room”. Wireless devices such as infusion pumps, and vital sign monitoring devices can access the system. This allows for instant documentation of this information into a patient chart and will alert if abnormalities are noted. Bar code scanners and carts are available as well. These items improve patient safety (Cerner, 2015). Cerner is capable of CPOE, electronic prescription transmitting, and has the ability to capture data and immunization statuses to meet reporting regulations.

Stage two maintained all of criteria from stage one and added to the requirements in several areas. “Meaningful use stage 2 upped the ante by enforcing stage 1 requirements and introducing new ones, such as demonstrating the ability to exchange key clinical information between providers of care and patient-authorized entities electronically” (Rouse “HITECH Act”). This further fortifies the idea that the government wants an EHR system that can communicate easily with other organizations. This can even be the patient themselves since the Federal Register that a health outcome policy priority for stage two is to “Engage patients and families in their health care” (Rules and Regulations 80). Healthcare providers must be able to provide patients a way to view an electronic copy of their health records within 4 business days of it being requested or else they will not receive the

Progress. Over the last decade, the hospital has made a lot of progress regarding the use of HER’s. After the CPSI system was initiated, the transition from paper charts to computer charts began. Today, all charting is done electronically by all members of the healthcare team. From the dieticians to the physicians, everyone is trained and

Cerner, one of the top two EHR systems in the country, was chosen by UAB when leaders in the health system decided to switch to a fully integrated health information system. As mentioned previously, the decision to choose Cerner EMR, PowerChart, as part of an integrated system fulfilled a core value of the organization and follows the trend of many institutions throughout the country. (Conn, 2013) PowerChart provides users with an integrated, clinical database that allows them to view real-time clinical data, enter orders, and ¬¬¬document in patients’ chart from multiple locations throughout the health system.

Clinical documentation is the crucial of every patient encounter. In order to be expressive, it must be exact, timely, and imitate the scope of services provided. Successful clinical documentation improvement (CDI) programs facilitate the precise image of a patient’s clinical rank that translates into coded data. Coded data is then interpreted into quality reporting, physician report cards, compensation, public health information, and disease tracking and

In my microsystem, our current information system is Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE), EMR, and care plans, on CERNER network system. It has made it easier for nurses to see doctors orders instead of trying to decipher their written orders. CPOE allows physicians and/or clinicians to enter orders remotely. It also allows for multiple people in different departments to view physician orders all at once, this is helpful if the patient is in route to different departments within the system allowing for the healthcare team to review the patient chart and provide accurate and safe effective care at any location within the

Cerner has the capability to display available history and demographics. Each time a patient is admitted into the hospital their records are maintained and are able to be viewed by any authorized staff member. Their charts are only allowed to be accessed if the patient was admitted within the last 30 days at any Methodist Health Care hospital. All information documented from other Methodist facilities will be visible to current providers. Chart Search improves productivity by limiting the amount of time needed to search a patient’s medical record. Clinicians

In our quest to find an appropriate “EHR” to integrate the blood glucose monitoring device we have considered several platforms, but we came to realize that CERNER EMR will be the more suitabe for several reasons. Cerner is a collection of “EHR” that addresses the needs of electronic medical records in almost all the healthcare field. For a company to have on the market more than 15 “EHR” may sound bizzare, but also it points to the complex needs of the medical field going from stand alone medical office to large conglomera of hospital chain like New York Presbytherian, NYU and others, from small practice like urgent care to specialized large surgical suite. Its diversity points to its capability to adapt to different environments, thus making it suitable to integrate mobile technology such as the glucose monitoring lenses. Another element playing in favor of “Cerner” is its interoperability capacity. According to CERNER