While the number of hospitals ready or likely to meet the Meaningful Use requirements of the Medicare and Medicaid electronic health record incentive programs has grown, more than half remain unlikely to make the grade, according to a new report from HIMSS Analytics.
The report reveals that 41 percent of 778 hospitals surveyed have, or can, meet Meaningful Use, an increase of 16 percent from February. But 53 percent haven't achieved enough of the core measures yet, and another 5 percent haven't made any progress toward attaining Meaningful Use.
Still, the results are encouraging, as they demonstrate that hospitals, in general, are making progress toward reaching Meaningful Use. The survey also indicates that:
- Academic medical centers are further along in their ability to meet Meaningful Use than other hospitals;
- Close to 50 percent of hospitals have conducted a security risk analysis;
- Hospitals in the "mountain region" of the United States--which includes Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming--are slower to adopt HIT.
According to another recent survey by research and advisory firm CapSite, Meaningful Use continues to be a driving force for hospitals to create health information exchanges. Of 340 responding hospitals nationwide, close to half said that the primary reason they were joining a HIE is to meet Meaningful Use criteria.
To learn more:
- read HIMSS' press release
- here's CapSite's press release
- check out this Health Data Management article