Stage 3 Objectives for Meaningful Use and Their Impact on APN Roles

Two Stage 3 objectives for meaningful use that have an impact on me as an APN in clinical practice are the need for eligible professionals to provide summaries of care visits to patients or their authorized representatives based on communication methods preferred by the patient, such as emails, regular mail, or via EHR patient portals. The other objective focuses on sharing care summaries among eligible healthcare professionals and organizations. Qualified healthcare professionals and organizations should provide medical summaries during the transition of care. Transitions of care as per the objective include moving the patient from one level of care setting to another, such as from one ward to another, one hospital to another, from hospital to home care or consultation care, or from emergency care to ward. These two objectives focus on coordinating patient care and improving patient engagement in care plans.

As an APN, I am responsible for ensuring that patients understand the information shared about their health status or the outcomes of care provided to them. The first objective guides how, as an APN, I am expected to interpret health information to the patients and ensure they are fully engaged throughout the treatment and recovery. Increased patient knowledge of their health condition has been linked to adherence to elements of care plans such as medication with improved patient outcomes (Han et al., 2019). Sharing patient information during the transition of care will also improve how my care team cooperates and coordinates. This coordination during the transition could lead to positive outcomes or reduced instances of patient readmission if the transition were from hospital-based care to home-based care.

References

Dobrow, M. J., Bytautas, J. P., Tharmalingam, S., & Hagens, S. (2019). Interoperable Electronic Health Records and Health Information Exchanges: Systematic Review. JMIR Med Inform 2019;7(2):E12607 Https://Medinform.Jmir.Org/2019/2/E12607, 7(2), e12607. https://doi.org/10.2196/12607

Han, H. R., Gleason, K. T., Sun, C. A., Miller, H. N., Kang, S. J., Chow, S., Anderson, R., Nagy, P., & Bauer, T. (2019). Using Patient Portals to Improve Patient Outcomes: Systematic Review. JMIR Hum Factors 2019;6(4):E15038 Https://Humanfactors.Jmir.Org/2019/4/E15038, 6(4), e15038. https://doi.org/10.2196/15038