Back to Search Start Over

Adoption of electronic health records grows rapidly, but fewer than half of US hospitals had at least a basic system in 2012.

Authors :
DesRoches CM
Charles D
Furukawa MF
Joshi MS
Kralovec P
Mostashari F
Worzala C
Jha AK
Source :
Health affairs (Project Hope) [Health Aff (Millwood)] 2013 Aug; Vol. 32 (8), pp. 1478-85. Date of Electronic Publication: 2013 Jul 09.
Publication Year :
2013

Abstract

The US health care system is in the midst of an enormous change in the way health care providers and hospitals document, monitor, and share information about health and care delivery. Part of this transition involves a wholesale, but currently uneven, shift from paper-based records to electronic health record (EHR) systems. We used the most recent longitudinal survey of US hospitals to track how they are adopting and using EHR systems. Only 44 percent of hospitals report having and using what we define as at least a basic EHR system. And although 42.2 percent meet all of the federal stage 1 "meaningful-use" criteria, only 5.1 percent could meet the broader set of stage 2 criteria. Large urban hospitals continue to outpace rural and nonteaching hospitals in adopting EHR systems. The increase in adoption overall suggests that the positive and negative financial incentives currently in place across the US health care system are working as intended. However, achieving a nationwide health information technology infrastructure may require efforts targeted at smaller and rural hospitals.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
1544-5208
Volume :
32
Issue :
8
Database :
MEDLINE
Journal :
Health affairs (Project Hope)
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
23840052
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2013.0308