ehealthrecord.info Vol. 7 No. 19, September 15, 2010

Longwoods Blog

Vol. 7 No. 19, September 15, 2010

Fact and Stats

Although the number of U.S. hospitals with either basic or comprehensive electronic health records increased by 3.2 percentage points in 2009, only 2% of those hospitals have EHRs that would meet the federal government’s “meaningful use” criteria, according to a study published in the journal Health Affairs.

Under the 2009 federal economic stimulus package, healthcare providers and hospitals that demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHRs will qualify for incentive payments through Medicaid and Medicare.

For the study, researchers lead by Ashish Jha, associate professor of health policy at the Harvard School of Public Health, analyzed data from the American Hospital Association’s Annual Survey Health IT Supplement.

According to Jha, cost is one of the biggest obstacles preventing hospitals from adopting EHRs. He added that implementing an EHR system could cost between $5 million and $10 million for small- to medium-sized hospitals, while large hospitals might need to pay about $100 million. Jha said that federal incentive payments might not be enough to encourage hospitals to adopt EHRs because of the strict meaningful use criteria and high implementation costs.

Read more.

Source: A Progress Report On Electronic Health Records in U.S. Hospitals

Date: August 26, 2010

Pre-Print From Electronichealthcare

Health PEI’s Vision: Completing the Island’s E-health Bridge to Healthcare Delivery Integration

Patrick Powers

[Pre-print from ElectronicHealthcare, Volume 9, Number 2. Made available at no charge for two weeks.]

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