Implementing Meaningful Use

Sample Answer for Implementing Meaningful Use Included After Question

Develop the Integrated Testing Plan

The need for quality healthcare delivery processes calls for effective approaches in managing patients’ information. Today, healthcare institutions are involved in the use of different techniques to facilitate the management of data and ensure dynamic research processes. Electronic health records are a technological approach applied in most healthcare institutions to facilitate the capture, storage, and general management of data and patient information. The effect application of the EHR system is always associated with the incentive programs involved in the management of databases. For the security of patient information, the management of data and general information is necessary for ensuring success in the operational processes. Databases should always remain secure and free from interference from cyber attackers. Through the use of EHR systems and databases, healthcare providers have been able to maintain the data’s safety and enhance sharing of information during healthcare delivery processes (Kwon & Johnson, 2018). Sharing of information kept in the databases should only be made possible for the healthcare professionals to prevent or stop unauthorized access from malicious individuals. As a result, there is a need for healthcare providers to incorporate effective and secure interoperability. There are different stages of the EHR system or meaningful use in regards to the implementation of technology in the healthcare processes. The purpose of this assignment is to describe the three major stages of meaningful use and their measures.

Meaningful Use

The EHR system is always designed to depend on the data management approaches used by an organization. In other words, the system’s design depends on the types of data to be collected and the level of security required (Shickel et al., 2017). The EHR system is supposed to provide an automated system for ensuring efficiency and easy access to patients’ data. When fully developed and integrated into healthcare, the EHR system can enhance quality management, decision-making support, as well as healthcare outcome reporting. For most healthcare organizations, a fully functional EHR system relies on the ideas behind the implementation process (Zaccagnini, 2019). One of the main pillars of meaningful us is the protection of patient’s information. All the activities undertaken under the EHR system aim at ensuring improved quality, efficiency, and safety of patient’s information or data. The use of the EHR system has also enhanced research and the application of evidence-based practices. Through these systems, healthcare professionals have been able to get data and determine the trends of various diseases.

Meaningful use has created easy and effective ways of sharing information between healthcare providers. Today, most healthcare organizations have adopted the use of interoperability that connects various departments and healthcare providers. The benefits of meaningful use are far-reaching; it provides a complete and accurate information system where caregivers can access the information they need at their fingertips; the system also facilitates the diagnosis of different healthcare problems and provides the best possible care (Gold et al., 2017). Finally, meaningful use has significantly improved the coordination of care as well as patient engagement. With the meaningful use, there has been the reduction of medication errors and facilitation of the processes that leads to a high level of efficiency and speed in the diagnosis and the general healthcare delivery processes. The EHR system facilitates coordination among the healthcare workers; as a result, there has been increased efficiency in the healthcare processes.

A Sample Answer For the Assignment: Implementing Meaningful Use

Title: Implementing Meaningful Use

Stages Involved in the Implementation of Meaningful Use

Stage 1

The implementation of meaningful use should always involve analysis of healthcare information systems, the types of data collected by any given healthcare organization, and interoperability. Stage one is considered to be one of the most critical parts of the EHR system development process. It mainly involves the organization of data and information for ensuring the safety and usability of the data. Through the organization of information, healthcare providers have been able to find it easier to carry out the implementation of subsequent steps of the EHR system. One of the main objectives of the EHR system/meaningful use is the coordination of care through integrating the EHR system with databases; this has always been achieved at stage one through clinical data tracking (Ramaprasad et al., 2020). The process incorporates utilization of data to determine the trends in healthcare quality. The analysis of stage one entirely depends on the security of information as well as success in sharing information.

Challenges and Barriers Faced by Facilities in Implementation of Stage 1

Stage one is an essential stage when implementing meaningful use although it is associated with several challenges of barriers. Temporary loss of productivity in the healthcare delivery processes is one of the problems or challenges found in stage one (Kaye, 2017). The implementation of the new systems in the operational processes usually interrupts the normal operational processes. Besides, healthcare professionals may take longer to adapt to the new environment. Stage one in the implementation process ought to incorporate continuous training processes to develop skills and competency in the use of this new technology. Also, there is the need to prepare healthcare professionals mentally and emotionally to successfully adopt the change process.

Stage 2

In stage two, there is always further integration of e-prescriptions in line with the outcomes of healthcare processes. Stage two mainly involve practices aimed at enhancing sharing of information; for instance, there is always implementation of interoperability to ensure patient’s information can be accessed by different healthcare professionals and healthcare providers. The success of stage two is measured in terms of the information shared through the interconnected networks. Full use of the EHR systems always depend on the success of stage two (Nair & Dreyfus, 2018). The success of stage two in the implementation processes also depends on stage one.

Challenges and Barriers Faced by Facilities in Implementation of Stage 2

The consideration of e-prescription in stage two often makes it very difficult to enhance sharing of information among healthcare providers. Stage two is also associated with the breach of data privacy. Through the integration of e-prescription, the system often becomes vulnerable to attacks due to delays or uninstalled security systems. To overcome these barriers, there is always the need to involve professionals who can apply technical approaches in maintaining the security of the system (Nair & Dreyfus, 2018). The incorporation of e-prescription is associated with high costs as well as the intense training that is required. Most healthcare organization ought to use huge amount of their revenues to ensure success in stage two.

Stage 3

All the activities or processes in stage one and two are actualized in stage three. Besides, this stage involves analyzing and integrating different factors developed in stages one and two. Successful implementation of stage three will ensure that the system operates at maximum efficiency.

Challenges and Barriers Faced by Facilities in Implementation of Stage 3

Stage three mainly involves the integration or incorporation of the processes undertaken in stage one and stage two. Therefore, the problems encountered in these two previous stages may interfere with the implementation processes in stage three. Lack of the essential resources in stage three may also interfere with the successful implementation process. The success of the EHR system or meaningful use can be realized when all the requirements in the three stages are met despite the challenges. Besides, all the stakeholders ought to be considered in the entire process of implementation. They need to be trained on the application of the new systems and how to improve healthcare services with it.

Implementing Meaningful Use Conclusion

Adherence to the three stages in the implementation of meaningful use may lead to successful outcomes in the healthcare delivery processes and data management. The EHR mainly consists of a range of data that includes medical history, demographics, immunization status, and personal statistics. In the current digital age, every healthcare facility needs to implement the use of the HER system with the aim of facilitating effective care delivery. With the increasing number of patients in the hospitals, the functions and significance of the EHR system remain vital; however, there are several factors that affect the implementation of the technology. Finally, meaningful use has created easy and effective ways of sharing information between healthcare providers. Today, most healthcare organizations have adopted the use of interoperability that connects various departments and healthcare providers.

Implementing Meaningful Use References

Gold, R., Cottrell, E., Bunce, A., Middendorf, M., Hollombe, C., Cowburn, S., … & Melgar, G. (2017). Developing electronic health record (EHR) strategies related to health center patients’ social determinants of health. The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, 30(4), 428-447. https://www.jabfm.org/content/30/4/428.short

Kaye, S. P. (2017). Nurses’ attitudes toward meaningful use technologies: an integrative review. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing, 35(5), 237-247. https://journals.lww.com/cinjournal/fulltext/2017/05000/nurses__attitudes_toward_meaningful_use.4.aspx

Kwon, J., & Johnson, M. E. (2018). Meaningful Healthcare Security: Does “Meaningful-Use” Attestation Improve Information Security Performance?. MIS Quarterly, 42(4), 1043-1067. https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.25300/MISQ/2018/13580

Nair, A., & Dreyfus, D. (2018). Technology alignment in the presence of regulatory changes: The case of meaningful use of information technology in healthcare. International journal of medical informatics, 110, 42-51. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1386505617304264

Ramaprasad, A., Syn, T., & Thirumalai, M. (2020). An ontological map for meaningful use of healthcare information systems (Muhis). In HEALTHINF 2014: Proceedings of the International Conference on Health Informatics, Marta Bienkiewicz, Christine Verdier, Guy Plantier, Tanja Schultz, Ana Fred and Hugo Gamboa, eds., SCITEPRESS. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2408850

Shickel, B., Tighe, P. J., Bihorac, A., & Rashidi, P. (2017). Deep EHR: a survey of recent advances in deep learning techniques for electronic health record (EHR) analysis. IEEE journal of biomedical and health informatics, 22(5), 1589-1604. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8086133/

Zaccagnini, M. A. R. Y. (2019). Doctor Of Nursing Practice Essentials: A new model for advanced practice nursing. S.l.: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Lopes Write Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to Lopes Write, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.

Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.

Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?

Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.

Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.

If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.

I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.

As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

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Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:

Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.

Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

Welcome to class

Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.

Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
Include in-text citations in your response
Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
Follow APA-7th edition
Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
Follow APA 7th edition
Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
Here are some helpful links
Student paper example
Citing Sources
The Writing Center is a great resource

As we begin this session, I would like to take this opportunity to clarify my expectations for this course:

Please note that GCU Online weeks run from Thursday (Day 1) through Wednesday (Day 7).

Course Room Etiquette:

It is my expectation that all learners will respect the thoughts and ideas presented in the discussions.
All postings should be presented in a respectful, professional manner. Remember – different points of view add richness and depth to the course!

Office Hours:

My office hours vary so feel free to shoot me an email at Kelly.[email protected] or my office phone is 602.639.6517 and I will get back to you within one business day or as soon as possible.
Phone appointments can be scheduled as well. Send me an email and the best time to call you, along with your phone number to make an appointment.
I welcome all inquiries and questions as we spend this term together. My preference is that everyone utilizes the Questions to Instructor forum. In the event your question is of a personal nature, please feel free to post in the Individual Questions for Instructor forum I will respond to all posts or emails within 24 or sooner.

Late Policy and Grading Policy

Discussion questions:

I do not mark off for late DQ’s.
I would rather you take the time to read the materials and respond to the DQ’s in a scholarly way, demonstrating your understanding of the materials.
I will not accept any DQ submissions after day 7, 11:59 PM (AZ Time) of the week.
Individual written assignments – due by 11:59 PM AZ Time Zone on the due dates indicated for each class deliverable.

Assignments:

Assignments turned in after their specified due dates are subject to a late penalty of -10%, each day late, of the available credit. Please refer to the student academic handbook and GCU policy.
Any activity or assignment submitted after the due date will be subject to GCU’s late policy
Extenuating circumstances may justify exceptions, which are at my sole discretion. If an extenuating circumstance should arise, please contact me privately as soon as possible.
No assignments can be accepted for grading after midnight on the final day of class.
All assignments will be graded in accordance with the Assignment Grading Rubrics

Participation

Participation in each week’s Discussion Board forum accounts for a large percentage of your final grade in this course.
Please review the Course Syllabus for a comprehensive overview of course deliverables and the value associated with each.
It is my expectation that each of you will substantially contribute to the course discussion forums and respond to the posts of at least three other learners.
A substantive post should be at least 200 words. Responses such as “great posts” or “I agree” do not meet the active engagement expectation.
Please feel free to draw on personal examples as you develop your responses to the Discussion Questions but you do need to demonstrate your understanding of the materials.
I do expect outside sources as well as class materials to formulate your post.
APA format is not necessary for DQ responses, but I do expect a proper citation for references.
Please use peer-related journals found through the GCU library and/or class materials to formulate your answers. Do not try to “Google” DQ’s as I am looking for class materials and examples from the weekly materials.
I will not accept responses that are from Wikipedia, Business dictionary.com, or other popular business websites. You will not receive credit for generic web searches – this does not demonstrate graduate-level research.
Stay away from the use of personal pronouns when writing. As a graduate student, you are expected to write based on research and gathering of facts. Demonstrating your understanding of the materials is what you will be graded on. You will be marked down for lack of evidence to support your ideas.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the act of claiming credit for another’s work, accomplishments, or ideas without appropriate acknowledgment of the source of the information by including in-text citations and references.
This course requires the utilization of APA format for all course deliverables as noted in the course syllabus.
Whether this happens deliberately or inadvertently, whenever plagiarism has occurred, you have committed a Code of Conduct violation.
Please review your LopesWrite report prior to final submission.
Every act of plagiarism, no matter the severity, must be reported to the GCU administration (this includes your DQ’s, posts to your peers, and your papers).

Plagiarism includes:

Representing the ideas, expressions, or materials of another without due credit.
Paraphrasing or condensing ideas from another person’s work without proper citation and referencing.
Failing to document direct quotations without proper citation and referencing.
Depending upon the amount, severity, and frequency of the plagiarism that is committed, students may receive in-class penalties that range from coaching (for a minor omission), -20% grade penalties for resubmission, or zero credit for a specific assignment. University-level penalties may also occur, including suspension or even expulsion from the University.
If you are at all uncertain about what constitutes plagiarism, you should review the resources available in the Student Success Center. Also, please review the University’s policies about plagiarism which are covered in more detail in the GCU Catalog and the Student Handbook.
We will be utilizing the GCU APA Style Guide 7th edition located in the Student Success Center > The Writing Center for all course deliverables.

LopesWrite

All course assignments must be uploaded to the specific Module Assignment Drop Box, and also submitted to LopesWrite every week.
Please ensure that your assignment is uploaded to both locations under the Assignments DropBox. Detailed instructions for using LopesWrite are located in the Student Success Center.

Assignment Submissions

Please note that Microsoft Office is the software requirement at GCU.
I can open Word files or any file that is saved with a .rtf (Rich Text Format) extension. I am unable to open .wps files.
If you are using a “.wps” word processor, please save your files using the .rtf extension that is available from the drop-down box before uploading your files to the Assignment Drop Box.

Grade of Incomplete

The final grade of Incomplete is granted at the discretion of the instructor; however, students must meet certain specific criteria before this grade accommodation is even possible to consider.
The grade of Incomplete is reserved for times when students experience a serious extenuating circumstance or a crisis during the last week of class which prevents the completion of course requirements before the close of the grading period. Students also must pass the course at the time the request is made.
Please contact me personally if you are having difficulties in meeting course requirements or class deadlines during our time together. In addition, if you are experiencing personal challenges or difficulties, it is best to contact the Academic Counselor so that you can discuss the options that might be available to you, as well as each option’s academic and financial repercussions.

Grade Disputes

If you have any questions about a grade you have earned on an individual assignment or activity, please get in touch with me personally for further clarification.
While I have made every attempt to grade you fairly, on occasion a misunderstanding may occur, so please allow me the opportunity to learn your perspective if you believe this has occurred. Together, we should be able to resolve grading issues on individual assignments.
However, after we have discussed individual assignments’ point scores, if you still believe that the final grade you have earned at the end of the course is not commensurate with the quality of work you produced for this class, there is a formal Grade Grievance procedure which is outlined in the GCU Catalog and Student Handbook.