Dive Brief:
- U.S. News' 'Most Connected Hospitals 2015-16' report finds some hospitals have implemented EMRs with flying colors, but overall progress has been fraught with challenges. Some of the roadblocks include software from different vendors that can't communicate, high costs (often more than $1 billion for large hospital systems), resistant physicians, and reluctance to share information with competitors.
- In response to hospital and physician complaints, HHS issued final rules this month on requirements to make EHRs more readily available to clinicians and the new standards more flexible and simple.
- The good news is the report found 159 hospitals in 37 states met criteria to be considered one of the "Most Connected Hospitals" which recognizes high-performing hospitals for their use of IT to improve patient care.
Dive Insight:
The states with the most hospitals on the list include Ohio (23 hospitals), Wisconsin (16 hospitals), and Pennsylvania (12 hospitals). Although hospitals on the list "have made significant advancement," according to Ben Harder, chief of health analysis at U.S. News, he noted overall U.S. "health systems have yet to realize the full promise of EHRs," according to an iHealthBeat article.
Hospitals that made the list were analyzed by U.S. News using dozens of variables spanning three areas of medicine where IT can make a difference to patients: clinical connectedness, patient safety, and patient engagement.
There are still mixed reactions to EHR progress. Eric Topol, chief academic officer at Scripps Health, said overall hospital connectivity is "profoundly negative," noting, "There have been tremendous resources put into this and little to show for it." But, David Blumenthal, president of the Commonwealth Fund and former National Coordinator for Health IT said he is "encouraged at the attention this area is getting and the interest [from] both the executive brand and Congress in taking action to improve health information exchange among hospitals, between hospitals and other providers of care, as well as among non-hospital providers."
View the list of the top connected hospitals here.