Dive Brief:
- A new study published by Health Affairs examined hospital EHR trends using national data from the American Hospital Association between 2008 and 2014. Results showed adoption has progressed with 75% of U.S. hospitals having a basic EHR system, up from 59% in 2013.
- The function not yet adopted most was physician notes (61% of hospitals).
- The study also found large increases in abilities to meet core state 2 meaningful use criteria (40.5% of hospitals, up from only 5.8% in 2013). This was attributed to an increased ability to exchange health information with patients and other physicians during care transitions. The top challenges listed by hospitals included up-front and ongoing costs, physician cooperation, and complexity of meeting meaningful use criteria.
Dive Insight:
Progression of EHR adoption, said the authors, "reflects a combination of the availability of financial incentives for the past four years, and the impending penalties - at least from the Medicare part of the meaningful use program." The authors remarked they were unsure how providers who have yet to adopt EHR will do once federal incentives change to penalties.
This is also true for small and rural hospitals, who have lagged behind. "While achieving EHR adoption among a majority of hospitals is an important milestone, it is critically important to reach close to nationwide adoption of these systems to gain the network benefits of EHR adoption," the authors stated.
Although encouraged by the overall progression of EHR adoption, the study concluded policy strategies that target the top challenges (implementing physician notes, physician resistance, the complexity of meeting meaningful use criteria, and controlling up-front and ongoing costs) "will disproportionately benefit small and rural hospitals, which continue to lag behind. With such strategies in place, nationwide hospital EHR adoption could be achieved in the near future, enabling the U.S. healthcare system to use EHRs to improve performance."