NURS 8210 Week 6 Assignment How These Issues Might Present Barriers to Successful Implementation within an Organization

Potential legal, financial, and ethical issues significantly hinder the implementation of meaningful use within a healthcare organization. Legal issues hinder successful, meaningful use implementation since healthcare leaders become concerned about the legal liabilities that EHR implementation may bring to the organization (McBride et al., 2018). The legal fees needed to develop EHR contracts also hinder the successful implementation of meaningful use, especially in small practices (Lite et al., 2020). Financial issues such as limited resources limit organizations from purchasing the EHR, which is a major barrier to implementing meaningful use. Ethical issues related to patient privacy and data integrity bar organizations from implementing meaningful use due to concerns of failing to uphold the HIPAA rule on maintaining patients’ privacy when using the EHR.

Ways That Health Care Organizations Can Make the Most of Their Electronic Health Record Investments In Light Of Meaningful Use

The Meaningful Use program promotes a safer, more efficient way to deliver healthcare services. Health care organizations can make the most of their EHR in view of meaningful use by using it to foster smooth, accurate data-sharing among the healthcare providers and improved quality of care for all patients (Wani & Malhotra, 2018). Organizations can use the EHR to ensure that the providers have access to complete and accurate information, facilitate the diagnosis of health conditions, and provide the best possible patient care. Besides, they can use the EHR to improve care coordination in the organizations (Wani & Malhotra, 2018). With the EHR, information can be shared instantaneously across care organizations, including hospitals, physician offices, and health systems, resulting in better care coordination.

Organizations can use the EHR to increase their patient engagement. The EHR strengthens the capacity of organizations to receive their medical records electronically and share them securely over the Internet. Health organizations can use it to their benefit to encourage patients to take a more active role in managing their health and their families (Wani & Malhotra, 2018). Organizations can also use the EHR to improve patient safety. For instance, they can use the EHR to promote fast electronic access to patient information about allergies, conditions, medications, and treatment history, thus significantly reducing the risk of medical errors (Wani & Malhotra, 2018). Lastly, organizations can use the EHR to promote healthier patient populations and communities by capturing vital data about diseases and outcomes and sharing it with other health professionals locally, regionally, and countrywide.

How EHR-Related Meaningful Use Legislation Is Being Implemented In My Organization

Meaningful legislation is being implemented in my organization through interventions consistent with the 13 Core Objectives and 9 Menu Objectives of stage one (CMS, 2017).  Clinicians use computerized provider order entry (CPOE) and clinical decision support (CDS) in making clinical decisions and carry out drug-drug and drug-allergy checks. The organization maintains an updated problem list of current and active diagnoses, an active drug list, and an active medication allergy list for patients. In addition, we have adopted E-Prescribing for the largest percentage of our patients (CMS, 2017). We also implement meaningful use by documenting patients’ demographics, changes in vital signs, and smoking status for patients 13 years and above. Furthermore, the organization offers patients the capacity to view, download, and transmit their health data online.

The organization further implements meaningful use by conducting a security risk analysis to protect electronic health data. Clinicians also provide patients with clinical summaries for their outpatient visits within three business days. It also submits electronic data to immunization registries and electronic syndromic surveillance data to public health agencies (CMS, 2017). Besides, we conduct drug formulary checks and create lists of patients by their specific conditions. We also send reminders to patients for their preventive and follow-up care and provide them with patient-specific education resources. Health providers in the organization implement meaningful use by integrating clinical lab-test results, carrying out medication reconciliation, and recording the summary of care for transitions of care.

Conclusion

Legal issues related to meaningful use can be attributed to complex EHR systems, problems with quality, usability, and reliability of the EHR, and electronic documentation. Financial issues include inadequate resources to purchase and maintain the EHR  as well as the transition from paper-based records