If there is one good starting point for PAs to begin a relationship with health information technology, it's gaining an understanding of what the term meaningful use means. There's a lot at stake here. Things like money, jobs, and the future of the profession.

We PAs can be a little narrow sometimes in our thinking about issues like this. PA education is compressed and accelerated, and the result can sometimes be providers who are hyper-focused on clinical issues, and disinclined to care about issues that may fall outside the definition of “clinical.” For many of us, this includes health information technology (otherwise known as HIT).

Since HIT is only growing now, we need to get a handle on this as a profession. As I mentioned in my last blog post, the AAPA and other professional entities have demonstrated an increased effort to get on board with HIT. And toward that end, here's an effort to singe “meaningful use” across your frontal lobe, mostly the left side, where you can use this information in your work. We might also want to singe it across your parietal lobe, since that's where the pain processing occurs, as in the financial pain you'll be feeling if you don't develop an understanding of HIT concepts now.

Let's start at the beginning. How did the concept of HIT come to be? Well, meaningful use was born on a wintry day in a small cabin high in the mountains of Arkansas...wait, wrong myth!

The concept of meaningful use was birthed with the federal Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, which became US law in 2009. This act described meaningful use as having the ability to enhance the delivery of high-quality health care.

Meaningful use requires three main functions:

  • Use of a certified electronic health record (EHR) system must be used (a somewhat controversial process by which vendors seek the blessing of federal certification)
  • An electronic exchange of health information
  • The ability to measure the quality of care.
There are three stages of meaningful use. The HIT Assistance Center program of the University of Missouri does an excellent job of describing the stages:

Three Stages of Meaningful Use - Meaningful use has three stages with goals for each stage. During Stage 1 (2011 and 2012), providers must meet certain objectives/measures, and 80% of patients must have records in the certified EHR technology. The reporting period for the first year is 90 days and 1 year subsequently.

  • Stage 1: Data Capture & Sharing - Electronic capture of health information in a structured format; Stage 1 began in 2011.
  • Stage 2: Advanced Clinical Processes - Quality improvement at the point of care and electronic exchange of information; Stage 2 is scheduled to begin in approximately 2013.
  • Stage 3: Improved Outcomes - Improvements in quality, safety, and efficiency, clinical decision support, and patient self-management tools; Stage 3 is scheduled to begin in approximately 2015.

So, we'll leave it at that for now. Your assignment before the next blog post is to be able to answer these  questions:

  • How many stages does meaningful use have?
  • True or false: Improved Outcomes is the first stage of meaningful use.
  • During the Data Capture phase of meaningful use, providers must include what percent of their patients in EHR?
  • True or false: PAs are eligible to receive the same meaningful use monetary incentives as NPs and MDs. (Hint: You are allowed to consult the last blog post to answer this question.)

If you are a PA and you can't answer these questions, then we may need to have a little talk and get you up to speed. But really, there's not much at stake, other than THE FUTURE OF OUR ENTIRE PROFESSION!

See you next week.