Only 1.5% of U.S. hospitals have an electronic records system in place in all clinical areas and an additional 7.6% have a basic system in at least once clinical unit, according to a New England Journal of Medicine study that examines adoption of electronic records by 2,952 acute-care hospitals. (Adding Veterans Health Administration hospitals to the data bumps the number of hospitals with comprehensive electronic records systems to 2.9%.) The comprehensive survey also found that 12% of hospitals had electronic physicians’ notes in all clinical areas, and 75% had electronic laboratory and radiologic reporting systems. There was no difference in rates of electronic record adoption between public and private hospitals.
Hospitals that hadn’t implemented electronic records systems reported barriers such as lack of capital to purchase the systems (74%); maintenance requirements (47%); physician resistance (36%); lack of clear ROI (32%); and inadequate staff technology expertise (30%). The authors propose that policymakers should stimulate greater use of health information technology by rewarding hospitals that use it, creating incentives for training IT staff, and “harmonizing information-technology standards and creating disincentives for not using such technology.”
Read the study.
