Health Affairs: EMR transition could take some time
The adoption of basic or comprehensive EHR systems by U.S. hospitals increased from 8.7 percent in 2008 to 11.9 percent in 2009, but only 2 percent of hospitals met the federal meaningful use standards needed to qualify for government financial incentives, according to an article published Aug. 26 in an advance online edition of Health Affairs.
“These findings underscore the fact that the transition to a digital healthcare system is likely to be a long one,” wrote Ashish K. Jha, associate professor of public health at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, and colleagues.
The researchers drew from a survey by the American Hospital Association, which asked 4,493 acute-care non-federal hospitals about their health IT efforts as of March 1, 2009 and gathered a 69 percent response rate. A representative from each hospital reported on the presence or absence of 32 clinical functions of an EHR and how widely they had been implemented throughout the hospital. Responses were statistically adjusted to balance for hospitals that did not respond.
From a data analysis, the researchers found small, public and rural hospitals were less likely to embrace EHRs than their larger, private and urban counterparts. Based on the measures examined by the authors, approximately 2 percent of U.S. hospitals described EHRs that would allow them to meet the criteria in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) for meaningful use.
"Getting hospitals to start using EHRs is critical," stated Jha. "There is overwhelming evidence that EHRs can help [hospitals], yet the expense and the disruption that implementing these systems can cause has forced many hospitals to move slowly."
"The problem is that the [ARRA incentive payments] for meeting meaningful use are front-loaded so hospitals have to implement and use EHRs by 2012 in order to get the bulk of the incentives," Jha opined. "This is an aggressive timeline, and many hospitals may not make it. If they miss out, it may be years before many of these hospitals will be able to afford to purchase and install their own EHR systems."
“These findings underscore the fact that the transition to a digital healthcare system is likely to be a long one,” wrote Ashish K. Jha, associate professor of public health at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, and colleagues.
The researchers drew from a survey by the American Hospital Association, which asked 4,493 acute-care non-federal hospitals about their health IT efforts as of March 1, 2009 and gathered a 69 percent response rate. A representative from each hospital reported on the presence or absence of 32 clinical functions of an EHR and how widely they had been implemented throughout the hospital. Responses were statistically adjusted to balance for hospitals that did not respond.
From a data analysis, the researchers found small, public and rural hospitals were less likely to embrace EHRs than their larger, private and urban counterparts. Based on the measures examined by the authors, approximately 2 percent of U.S. hospitals described EHRs that would allow them to meet the criteria in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) for meaningful use.
"Getting hospitals to start using EHRs is critical," stated Jha. "There is overwhelming evidence that EHRs can help [hospitals], yet the expense and the disruption that implementing these systems can cause has forced many hospitals to move slowly."
"The problem is that the [ARRA incentive payments] for meeting meaningful use are front-loaded so hospitals have to implement and use EHRs by 2012 in order to get the bulk of the incentives," Jha opined. "This is an aggressive timeline, and many hospitals may not make it. If they miss out, it may be years before many of these hospitals will be able to afford to purchase and install their own EHR systems."