Despite the many promises of electronic health records, significant obstacles stand in the way of hospitals determined to implement them. According to 176 hospital and health system financial executives surveyed by HFMA, the biggest stumbling blocks to EHR adoption are a lack of national information standards and code sets, insufficient available funding, concern about physician usage, and lack of interoperability. Only 28% of respondents cited insufficient financial return as a significant barrier.
Respondents reported slow progress in realizing the potential of EHRs. The greatest headway was made in implementing electronic order entry, cited by 38% of respondents, followed by results management (27%), electronic health information/data capture (23%), and administrative processes (23%). Only 13% of hospital executives said their facilities were making significant progress in clinical decision support and health outcomes reporting. Funding and ROI were greater concerns for hospitals indicating a low level of EHR adoption.
Both government and hospitals need to develop solutions to solve problems of standardization, funding, and physician acceptance of EHRs. The majority of respondents felt that the government should facilitate development of national standards and code sets to enable hospitals to exchange patient information among providers, payers, and others. Also high on the list of expectations for government were grant funding and payment incentives, simplification of the Medical payment system so hospitals can free up money for IT, and an investment in regional networks. Without waiting for government initiatives, however, several hospitals are creating their own information networks or tapping into existing ones. The HFMA survey and a roundtable discussion with 15 healthcare financial executives describe strategies hospitals are currently using to partner with vendors, collaborate with other healthcare organizations, and champion EHRs to physicians.
More information on financing capital investments is available on the Financing the Future web site.
More information on EHRs is available in Healthcare IT: Getting Value from the Investment, an hfm magazine collection.
