Introduction
An electronic health record (EHR) is a digital collection of information relevant to individuals’ medical care whose focus is to facilitate treatment for both, the doctor and the patient. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act intended to modernize the care process through government subsidies and financing aimed to influence EHR’s frequency of use in various medical organizations. Recognizing the government’s role and interest in propagating EHR technology, therefore, becomes a prerequisite for evaluating the effects of digitalization and appraising the benefits that patients have received against the resources invested in the venture.
The HITECH Act of 2009: Objectives
While stressing the importance of digitalization, the HITECH Act was not enacted solely to deal with the issue of modernizing health records for ease of information transmission. Initially, the act aimed to improve the quality of care by paving the road for Medicare and outlining the types of institutions qualified to receive this kind of government financial support (United States Government Accountability Office, 2012). Therefore, it is possible to draft the intentions of the HITECH Act as the creation of prerequisites for innovating health care protocol techniques through the establishment of stable government financing.
Anticipated Benefits of EHRs
As outlined by the HITECH Act, the use of EHRs is a crucial step in improving the capacity of healthcare institutions. If benefiting from the effects of EHR may be outlined as one of the program’s core goals, then it could be an attempt to instill a new conception of the process of healthcare. Standardizing patient data within a consistent platform enables transferring information among institutions and other healthcare professionals, an action that leads to reducing the number of medical errors through effective coordination (Snyder & Oliver, 2014). The creation of a point of contact between patients and professionals through an increase in public confidence, thus, may result in a procedural and qualitative change.
Evaluation of Incentive Programs
Following the installation of a funding procedure through the involvement of numerous institutions in HITECH-incentivized programs, the activities planned to modernize healthcare information storage and transmission. Despite the recognition that the HITECH Act may have gathered during its first year of implementation, when numerous hospitals and professionals became involved in its program, persevering drawbacks prevent the plan’s fruition.
However, efforts to support advancements inpatient record computerization continue through the attraction of more clinicians to participate in Medicare plans, which permits increasing the number of EHR-using professionals (“Meaningful use and MACRA,” 2018). Therefore, the continued efforts to expand the user base of digitalized records coincidentally augment their importance, utility, and practicality, consequently increasing the number of patients that may have access to EHR benefits.
Conclusion
While digitalization remains an ongoing endeavor in many institutions, preventing certain patients from benefiting from EHR advantages, the number of those receiving improved healthcare continues increasing. The expansion of the amount of participating members permits perfecting the means of achieving the HITECH Act’s objectives, thus creating conditions for their accomplishment. The current EHR normalization achievements are per the support received and should, therefore, satisfy providers, considering the difficulty of the endeavor.
References
Meaningful use and MACRA. (2018). Web.
Snyder, E., & Oliver, J. (2014). Evidence-based strategies for attesting to meaningful use of electronic health records: An integrative review. Online Journal of Nursing Informatics, 18(3). Web.
United States Government Accountability Office. (2012). Electronic health records: Number and characteristics of providers awarded Medicare incentive payments for 2011. Washington, DC: United States Government Accountability Office.