HITECH is a health act passed in 2009 that obliges the department of health to dedicate a substantial amount of funds to endorse and expand the uptake of information systems in healthcare. The rationale behind the act is that the country’s health system needs deep information about the citizens to enable effective population health management. HITECH has had a profound effect on nursing informatics. Since the system enables information sharing between clinicians from different specialties, it has enabled nursing informatics to reflect the changing nature of America’s healthcare sector to empower the development of effective interventions ( Halamka & Tripathi, 2017) . Also, it has been useful in developing a single platform which nurses can make reference. Essentially, it has expanded the scope of nursing informatics to become more wide-ranging and accurate. Besides, it has been useful in empowering nursing research due to the expanded range of nursing informatics.
Impact of HITECH on System Implementation
HITECH was developed to motivate the deployment of electronic health records (HER) and reinforce technology. On that note, the policy has transformed the way healthcare organizations approach the implementation of information systems. Since the Act was developed in anticipation of the expansion of exchange of private health information between clinicians and doctors, it has eased sharing of data to reduce the cost of healthcare ( Halamka & Tripathi, 2017) . Also, it has expanded the range of security and privacy safeguards and the HIPPA laws by enhancing the legal liability in instances of non-compliance and providing more strict rules for system implementation. Since 2011, the HITECH Act has obliged health care organizations to be handed monetary incentives for demonstrating meaningful application of electronic health records ( Ray et al. 2019) . Also, the health organizations are given time fines for failing to show effect use of EHR. Generally, HITECH has enabled health care organizations to take more charge of their EHRs to reduce healthcare costs and improve patient outcomes.
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Impact of the HITECH on Clinical Care, Patient/Provider Interactions, and Workflow
HITECH has had a significant impact on the entire healthcare system. In regards to clinical care, the policy has been useful in improving effectiveness of clinicians and improving patient outcomes. It is because the policy has enabled the various medical databases to be interwoven to ease consultation between professionals ( Ray et al. 2019) . On that note, the policy has also increased interactions between patients and providers. The use of electronic platforms has enhanced service delivery since a patient is able to interact with several specialists in a single platform to optimize patient outcomes. Also, the increased focus on interdisciplinary collaborations has provided a useful way for clinicians to interact with patients. In terms of workflow, there has been a significantly improved workflow in hospitals due to the focus on information systems to assign tasks to clinicians.
Policies and Procedures for HITECH
The first policy pertains to breach notification. The policy requires patients to be notified in the case of an unauthorized breach. It means that health organizations are required to have a breach officer and come up with policies regarding policy breaches ( Ray et al. 2019) . The next policy is access to electronic health records (EHR). An organization is required to come up with procedures regarding the use of EHR by clinicians to ensure safe and effective usage. The final policy addresses issues pertaining to policy. Under HITECH, an organization is required to revise its privacy policy to ensure the level of data security is enhanced. As part of this policy, an organization is supposed to develop procedures regarding how clinicians share patient information. Generally, an organization should come up with novel policies reading data privacy, security, and potential breaches.
References
Halamka, J. D., & Tripathi, M. (2017). The HITECH era in retrospect. N Engl J Med , 377 (10), 907-909.
Ray, J. M., Ratwani, R. M., Sinsky, C. A., Frankel, R. M., Friedberg, M. W., Powsner, S. M., ... & Melnick, E. R. (2019). Six habits of highly successful health information technology: powerful strategies for design and implementation. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association , 26 (10), 1109-1114.
