Less than 2 percent of nonfederal general acute care hospitals had a comprehensive electronic health record (EHR), according to a new report funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Health Information Technology in the United States: On the Cusp of Change, 2009. An additional 7.6 percent had a basic EHR. Teaching hospitals, those with more than 500 beds, and hospitals that were members of a system or located in an urban area more commonly reported having EHRs.
The individual functionalities most commonly reported as fully implemented across all hospital units were electronic viewing of laboratory (77 percent) and radiology (78 percent) reports, and radiology images (78 percent). Approximately one in five hospitals reported fully implemented computerized order entry and clinical decision support.
This report is the third in a series of reports about health IT (HIT) adoption in the United States. This edition highlights the needed integration steps between performance measurement initiatives and HIT. Other topics covered include: adoption of electronic health records in U.S. hospitals, and specifically among hospitals that care for the poor; state roles in the advancement of HIT; and recent federal initiatives related to HIT.
