Rural hospital EHR adoption up 257%
Rural hospitals still trail urban hospitals when it comes to EHR adoption, but the divide is diminishing, according to a report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and new research it references.
The percentage of rural hospitals with a basic EHR system was 33.5 percent in 2012, up 257 percent from 9.8 percent in 2010, the year before eligible providers could started receiving payments from the federal EHR incentive payment program of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
In comparison, the EHR adoption rate for urban hospitals was 47.7 percent in 2012, up 180 percent from 17 percent in 2010.
“Although the rural hospitals are challenged, they're accelerating faster than some of the urban hospitals,” said Michael Painter, MD, senior program officer for the foundation.
The increases for hospitals were only slightly affected by the relative income status of their patients, the RWJF report showed. Using the CMS' disproportionate share index as a proxy for patient income levels, researchers determined that by 2012 a difference of only 5 percentage points between an EHR adoption rate of 46.5 percent for hospitals with the poorest patients compared with a 2012 EHR adoption rate of 51.3 percent for hospitals with the most well-off patients.
The incentive payment program is doing what it was intended to do--accelerate the adoption of EHR systems, even among the most financially challenged hospitals, Painter said. “Everybody wants to get on board while the money is available and before the disincentives kick in,” he said.
Editor
Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.