The escalating cost of the U.S. healthcare system and the need to improve patient safety and reduce medical errors, coupled with national disasters, terrorism, and other unsustainable healthcare trends, has necessitated major healthcare reform in the United States.  Focusing on the adoption of electronic health records as a priority within the U.S. National Health IT Agenda is the key driver cited to achieving the transformation needed. 

As a result of TIGER’s strategic plan, the National Health IT Agenda Collaborative was formed.  The purpose of this collaborative was to identify the most relevant health IT agenda and policies that are important to the TIGER and the nursing profession’s mission and to assist in closing any representation gaps on said policy issues.

Since the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, momentum and activities to-date in the areas of governance, policy, technology, and adoption have accelerated in both the federal and private sector.  Nursing’s involvement in the national HIT agenda, as the largest sector of the U.S. healthcare workforce, is even more urgent and critical today.