Electronic Health Record Essay

Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive programs were introduced to the health care field in 2011. The purpose being to adopt, implement , upgrade (AIU), and demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHR technology (CEHRT). These programs consist of three stages and also have requirements for meaningful use, which continue to change and evolve. The research conducted gave me more insight on the three stages and how the requirements have changed over time. The stages are broken down into stage one, stage two, and stage three. Stage one, establishes a foundation for the programs, by establishing requirements for the electronic capture of clinical data, which included providing patients with electronic copies of health information. The meaningful use requirements and some other requirements for stage one are ; the first year and 1 year subsequently has a 90 day period for reporting, Reports must be done through attestation, must have objectives and clinical quality measures (CQM) prepared, the reporting may be numerator, denominator or yes, no

Hospitals must have 15 Clinical Quality Measures, 5 of 10 objectives from the menu set, and 14 core objectives completed. Eligible Professionals must have 6 total Clinical Quality Measures, 3 come from the core or alternate core. The other 3 CQM’s come from an additional set of 38 (3 out of 38). They must also have 5 out of 10 objectives from the menu set, and 15 core objectives completed. The next stage, stage two, expanded on the idea of stage one. Stage two focused on advancing clinical processes and ensuring the meaningful use of EHRs supported the priorities of the National Quality Strategy. This stage encouraged the use of CEHRT for the best way to exchange information and for continuous quality improvement. Finally in 2015, CMS released the final rule to modify stage two and create stage three for 2015-2017 and