Meaningful use for nurses - Running head MEANINGFUL USE...

Running head: MEANINGFUL USE FOR NURSES 1
Meaningful Use for Nurses
Chamberlain College of Nursing
NR 512 Fundamentals of Nursing Informatics
Dr. Gina Sargent

MEANINGFUL USE FOR NURSES 2
Meaningful Use for Nurses
Healthcare has made many changes over the last 10 years that have effected how nurses
and other healthcare providers care for individuals in a healthcare setting. The introduction of
Information Technology (IT) has added great value to the healthcare system and the nursing
profession and offers faster and more proficient patient care. The Health information technology
(HIT) Act is part of the HITECH Act that is making significant changes in how healthcare
professionals deliver care. This act includes personal health information (PHI), electronic health
records (EHR), electronic prescription, and many more. HIT ensures for more accurate and
efficient documentation, medication prescriptions, and patient education. Meaningful use was
introduced by the Obama administration to assist with the adoption of the EHR. This paper will
look at what meaningful use is, and what core criteria of meaningful use is and recommendations
for additional criteria.
Meaningful use overview
In 2009, the Obama administration reformed healthcare by passing the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The ARRA is trying to improve Americas healthcare
by improving the quality of care patients receive and by reducing healthcare costs. The
Healthcare Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act is part of
the ARRA and defines the term “meaningful use”. According to HealthIT.gov (2015),
“meaningful use” uses Electronic Health Record (EHR) technology to improve the quality,
safety, and efficiency but ultimately is hoped for better clinical outcomes. The HITECH Act
encourages healthcare providers to show “meaningful use” of a certified Electronic Health
Record by providing incentive payments for adopting of certified EHR. The EHR Incentive
Program (Meaningful Use) provides payment to eligible professionals, eligible hospitals, and

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critical access hospitals (CAHs) when they meet a set of standards for the use of federally
certified EHR technology (CEHRT) as part of their practice (American Academy of Pediatrics,
2011). At first, providers and healthcare organizations will receive incentives for using
meaningful use of EHR to offset the cost of implementing the EHR system (Martelle, Farber,
Stazesky, Dickey, Parsons, & Venter, 2015). These incentives were available till 2015 and
physicians and healthcare organization can now be penalized for failing to use EHR.