HIMSS’ 25-year survey: Old problems become new again

The issues facing hospital and health system leaders 25 years ago are not far off from what they’re reporting today, according to a recent HIMSS’ report documenting findings from 25 years of their annual leadership survey.

“[M]uch of healthcare during the last 25 years can be characterized by the industry’s response to the federal government’s repeated attempts to stem growing healthcare costs and/or institute government initiatives,” according to the report. Between 1990 and 2014, there have been two attempts to overhaul healthcare delivery; mandates to improve the rate of insurance coverage; guidance to upgrade to ICD-10; and incentives to advance EMRs or EHRs.

In looking at the 25-year timeline, HIMSS’ report catalogued responses from more than 12,700 hospital and health system leaders, including:

• 1991: 77 percent indicated that creating an online medical record posed the greatest potential to improving hospital services in the future
• 1994: 14 percent predicted that digital patient information would be shared nationwide in one-to-three years
• 2000: 70 percent of respondents reported that HIPAA is a top business issue
• 2005 and 2006: Participants indicated that EMRs and barcoded medication were the top applications their organization was focused on installing
• 2008: Clinical information systems and computerized physician order entry relegated EMRS to the third-most important application
• 2010: More than half of respondents noted they were going to make additional investments to position themselves to qualify for incentives available through the Meaningful Use program.

“With much of the aforementioned legislative efforts during this 25 period designed to manage spiraling healthcare costs and improve the quality of care delivered, it’s notable to observe the increased reliance healthcare leaders placed on IT,” according to the report. “While much of the early HIT efforts revolved around financial and operational systems the more recent focus on HIT has shifted towards clinical applications. This shift is perhaps best illustrated in the accelerated adoption of EHRs during the late 2000s and 2010s, spurred on by Meaningful Use.”

Acccess the report here.