Execs say they are on their way with EHRs

Three out of four hospital execs said their organizations have partly or fully implemented electronic health records (EHRs) of some sort, while 83 percent say they have either selected or implemented an EHR that can fulfill federal Meaningful Use requirements, according to a survey conducted by Dell.

The survey, conducted last fall, interviewed 150 hospital executives and 309 recent hospital patients to gauge their attitudes toward various issues facing the healthcare industry, reports InformationWeek.

A third of respondents said they are participating in some form of local, regional, or state health information exchanges (HIE), which permits multiple providers to have access to the same patient data. Another 54 percent are planning to participate in an HIE. And, 70 percent had partly or fully implemented an online physician portal, according to the Dell Executive and Patient Survey.

Many patients surveyed already use electronic tools routinely in connection with their healthcare. Three out of four want their records shared electronically among their providers, and 81 percent wanted electronic access to information about their hospitals and doctors.

More than 70 percent  of the patients wanted to be able to email their physicians, and 76 percent wanted their prescriptions sent to their pharmacy electronically. Only 37 percent expressed concern about their health data being shared among physicians, and 45 percent were concerned about hospitals sharing their data.

Harry Greenspun, MD, executive director and chief medical officer with Dell, said in an interview with FierceHealthIT conducted at the recent HIMSS conference that "average healthy people want to learn about [EHR technology] from their doctors...not necessarily from their insurance companies or the government. It's important that we deliver this message across the board."

For more details:
- see the Dell survey
- read the InformationWeek article