Journal of the American College of Radiology : JACR
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Meaningful use legislation was first introduced in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 as a multistaged program to incentivize adoption of electronic health record technology. Since that time, numerous eligible providers and eligible hospitals have captured incentive payments by installing certified electronic health record technology and capturing and reporting on key elements for patients whose health records are stored in an electronic format. Although the question of whether radiologists should participate in the program was initially debated, the evidence is now clear that lack of participation leaves a significant amount of money at risk. This article provides an overview of how the program is structured, what technology needs to be installed, the necessary data elements to capture in an electronic format, and how radiologists can effectively participate in the program to capture their maximum incentive payment.
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The planning phases of quality improvement projects are commonly overlooked. Disorganized planning and implementation can escalate chaos, intensify resistance to change, and increase the likelihood of failure. Two important steps in the planning phase are (1) assessing local resources available to aid in the quality improvement project and (2) evaluating the culture in which the desired change is to be implemented. ⋯ This process also involves engaging informaticists and gathering available IT tools to plan and automate (to the extent possible) the data-gathering, analysis, and feedback steps. Culture in a department is influenced by the ability and willingness to manage resistance to change, build consensus, span boundaries between stakeholders, and become a learning organization. Allotting appropriate time to perform these preparatory steps will increase the odds of successfully performing a quality improvement project and implementing change.