Discuss the Potential Impact of Specific Health Care Policy Provisions on Outcomes and Patient Experiences

Healthcare, a regulated discipline, is bound to several legal and policy provisions. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act is an example of a policy provision that found immense use in modern healthcare. This policy encourages using meaningful healthcare technologies such as the EHR in care provision. The healthcare goals of the HITECH Act are to improve the efficiency, quality, and safety of the healthcare system, improve care coordination, enhance privacy and security of protected health information, and improve the health status of communities. This act oversaw the widespread integration of an electronic health record system that significantly enhanced work efficiency in the healthcare system.

The provisions of the HITECH Act have positively impacted patient experiences and clinical outcomes. By encouraging the use of healthcare technologies, the HITECH Act eliminates barriers to enhanced patient experiences, such as privacy and security breaches and poor access to care. It has also eased workflow within the healthcare system (Gettinger & Zayas-Cabán, 2021). Implementing this policy has resulted in improved efficiency of healthcare provision processes, enhanced security of protected health information and clinical outcomes, improved patient satisfaction with the care process, and improved patient experiences. Atasoy et al. (2019) note that adopting meaningful healthcare technologies that succeeded in the HITECH Act had clinical care benefits, with enhanced patient experiences evident. This further reinforces the significance of this act in improving clinical outcomes and patient experiences.