Government requirements for hospitals to get cash rewards for the meaningful use of electronic health records may be too stringent for many facilities, according to a survey conducted by the American Hospital Association.
According to survey report "A small fraction of U.S. hospitals reported using electronic medical records software last year and even fewer would have met new requirements for 'meaningful use' of the systems in 2009."
The AHA polled 3,100 members. Only 12% used electronic records and only 2% would have met the requirements drafted by the federal government to win the payments.
To be eligible for financial incentives, hospitals must demonstrate that they meet 14 core objectives and five of the ten menu objectives. AHA found modest increases in adoption of electronic health records between 2008 and 2009. Larger, nonprofit, urban hospitals made more headway than critical-access hospitals, small and medium-size hospitals, and public and rural hospitals. It also found that a very small proportion of hospitals can meet the stage 1 meaningful-use criteria. This finding suggests that most hospitals will have to make substantial progress to receive financial incentives over the next two years, says the report.
AHA proposes several potential policy solutions, including extending the efforts of the Regional Extension Centers to include small and public institutions.