Introduction
HITECH legislation stands for Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health. Its main purpose is to foster adoption and regulate the use of information technology in health care environments (Mennemeyer, Menachemi, Rahurkar, & Ford, 2016). Among other things, it addresses data security and establishes penalties for persons and entities for its violation (Liu & Park, 2013). The act is also paramount for health care as it presupposes grants and spendings in order to implement IT in hospitals. This essay addresses various instances of HITECH use and impact.
Impact of HITECH Legislation on Organization
In the organization where I work, there has been a recent introduction of the Electronic Health Records (EHR) system. It became possible due to the HITECH act that authorized the allocation of funds for such an innovation. EHR has produced a lot of improvements in the daily routine of nurses. For instance, the workers do not need to fill out countless papers, as now all records are stored in an electronic database easily accessible to health care workers. Previously, there were cases when patient records were lost due to misconduct, or theft. Now, such incidents are hardly possible. We had to undergo certain training in order to be effective at working with EHR but the system is rather intuitive and even older nurses who usually experienced difficulties with any kind of technology regarded highly of it.
In addition to that, under HITECH were are eligible for the safety and security of patient data as we access it through our accounts. This slightly complicates issues, as certain individuals may forget their passwords or lose them to a third party (Noblin et al., 2013). However, in a digital era, all nurses seem to be well equipped to work with personal accounts and knowledgeable of basic safety precautions. In addition, we received instructions on this issue.
Article Summary and Reflection
The article under consideration is called “Small Practices’ Experience with EHR, Quality Measurement, and Incentives.” The authors study the attitudes of 140 physicians toward the use of financial incentives for the implementation of EHR (Begum et al., 2013). The study utilized the control and incentive groups to ensure validity. The results indicated that in both groups experiences were positive. In the incentive group, there has been a meaningful increase in quality measurements and actions utilized by physicians. It demonstrates the effectiveness of financial incentives in relation to the informed use of EHR. The quality, relevancy, and accuracy of the reports have also improved, which speaks further to the usefulness of incentives. The article demonstrates that health information technology is capable to meet the requirements of meaningful use through financial incentives that motivate the target audience to exercise positive practices in this regard. It may not be the permanent solution. However, it shows that incentives, in general, maybe the catalyst of change in the sphere of IT in health care.
Conclusion
All things considered, HITECH legislation certainly contributed to the advent of information technology and its active use in the sphere of health care. Clinical workers are one of the main stakeholders and beneficiaries of the policy as their working conditions seem to change for the better. Scientific data demonstrates that the transition needs to be facilitated through incentives. Financial ones appear to be a useful tool in that initiative.
References
Begum, R., Ryan, M. S., Winther, C. H., Wang, J. J., Bardach, N. S., Parsons, A. H., … Dudley, R. A. (2013). Small practices’ experience with EHR, quality measurement, and incentives. The American Journal of Managed Care, 19, 12-18.
Liu, W., & Park, E. K. (2013). e-Healthcare interconnection networking services. Journal of Communications, 8(9), 550-560.
Mennemeyer, S. T., Menachemi, N., Rahurkar, S., & Ford, E. W. (2016). Impact of the HITECH act on physicians’ adoption of electronic health records. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 23(2), 375-379.
Noblin, A., Cortelyou-Ward, K., Cantiello, J., Breyer, T., Oliveira, L., Dangiolo, M.,… Berman, S. (2013). EHR implementation in a new clinic: A case study of clinician perceptions. Journal of medical systems, 37(4), 9955-9959.