Four years ago in the May 2010 Practice Points column, we discussed the future need for implementing the “meaningful use” of an electronic health record (EHR), understanding the importance of documenting “meaningful” data to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS), and measuring the actual impact on patient care. The background information to the Meaningful Use initiatives began with the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act provision of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. This initiative provided billions of dollars in incentives for the adoption and use of Health Information Technology by Medicare and Medicaid providers for the next decade. For these eligible providers (EPs) and hospitals to receive the financial incentives set forth (Table 1), they must achieve meaningful use using a certified EHR. The meaningful use requirements are grouped into 3 stages:
- Stage 1 focuses on capturing data
- Stage 2 focuses on reporting health information and tracking of defined clinical data sets
- Stage 3 focuses on improving performance and health outcomes
Supporting the meaningful use efforts is the implementation of clinical quality measures (CQMs)…
Read the rest of the article at Advances in Skin & Wound Care.
An excerpt from an article originally published in Advances in Skin & Wound Care, written by Cathy Thomas Hess, BSN, RN, CWOCN, VP and Chief Clinical Officer at Net Health