“Meaningful Use” entails using certified electronic health record (EHR) technology to improve quality, safety, and efficiency, and reduce health disparities. It is a U.S. government initiative intended to facilitate communication among health-care stakeholders, engage patients and family in the health-care process, and improve care coordination across the country. The U.S. government also employs Meaningful Use to assess how health-care organizations use EHR technology to ensure accuracy and transparency of the exchange of patient medical data between health-care providers, providers and insurers, and providers and patients. There are three stages to this program:
- Stage 1 promotes the implementation of a certified electronic medical record to improve quality, safety, and efficiency in health care, which Miami Children’s Health System (MCHS) completed in 2012.
- Stage 2 provides patients with access to their own medical records, which MCHS completed in 2013.
- Stage 3 ensures the electronic medical record interoperability, which was a strategic initiative for MCHS from 2013 through 2015.
Program Details
To implement Meaningful Use accurately and consistently across all clinical disciplines, 1,800 new workflows were developed, and just-in-time training was created to achieve compliance with the regulatory initiative at MCHS. The extensive training initiative included learning forums, Web-based courses, audio/video scripts, and visual aids targeted at a diverse population of physicians, nurses, clinical caregivers, support teams, case managers, and coders. The Learning & Development team (L&D) led this system-wide initiative and trained more than 2,800 end-users within four weeks.
In addition, the L&D team monitored performance and data entry daily in order to target reinforcement training in areas that had gaps in Meaningful Use documentation.
Results
Working closely with IT to improve flow and report on gap analysis, the L&D team contributed to claiming $600,000 in Meaningful Use incentive dollars. In addition, weekly team rounds resulted in the creation of the first consumer-driven medical record app that patients and families can access through their personal computer or smartphone. Families now can view their child’s medical records, including appointments, lab results, radiology screening, physician notes, and billing through MyKid’s Patient Portal. The portal is a secure Web-based system that allows patients and families real-time access to the medical records.
This innovative approach to health-care management is a new practice, and MCHS’ CEO, CIO, CMIO, and Learning team have been invited to many health-care and innovation conferences to share this business practice and to support other health-care organizations in their journey to effective management of patient records.
