Attaining Meaningful Use (MU) is not an event, but a process. As a practical matter, MU should be organized around packages of MU criteria in a sequence that leads to achieving Meaningful Use. For example, it would not be practical to provide patients with electronic access to their patient records (MU Menu Set 5), until you maintain an electronic copy of patient health information (MU Core Measure 12).
Meaningful Use can be divided into three stages: