Observing Provider Utilization of Electronic Health Records to Improve Clinical Quality Metrics

This study compared changes of healthcare quality in a Michigan Medicaid population before and after physician adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) via the Meaningful Use (MU) program for selected Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) quality of care measures. Healthcare measures included well-child visits, cancer screening, and chronic illness quality measures. Utilization data were obtained from Medicaid paid claims and encounter data with providers (N=291) receiving their first MU incentive in 2014 and at least one HEDIS-defined outpatient visit with a Michigan Medicaid enrollee. Paired t-tests with a repeated measures design were utilized to analyze the data. Improvements in quality of infant well-child visits (mean difference = 10.2) and colorectal cancer screening (mean difference = 8.0 percent) were observed. We found no change or slight decreases for the other selected measures. These outcomes inform the performance and ability of EHRs to improve quality of healthcare standards particularly as technology continues to evolve under the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Interoperability and Patient Access final rule.