A “Health Affairs” briefing July 9th hosted at the National Press Club in Washington D.C, discussed the latest trends on health information technology adoption among U.S. healthcare providers and hospitals.
The featured speaker Farzad Mostashari, National Coordinator for Health Information at HHS said, “The state of health technology four years ago was greatly different than today. At that time, 90 percent of hospitals and 80 percent of physician practices used paper records, while 93 percent of prescriptions were written on paper.
He reports, “The data revolution is underway and we have certainly reached milestones and made great progress but shaping healthcare delivery is not a quick task. It may take decades to accomplish the full use of health information technology.”
“What has moved health technology forward is that this country invested in IT infrastructure which in turn, incentivized doctors and hospitals”, he said “Also, the government continues to provide technical assistance to help independent small practices that often are not always easily able to transfer to electronic records.”
According to Mostashari, there were and still are major challenges to overcome. These challenges include redesigning the payment system, reaching patients with information on prevention and wellness, reducing the number of readmissions, adhering to value-based purchasing, developing the business case for coordinated care, developing interoperable standards and vocabulary, and producing new patterns of workflow to match the software that is used in doctor’s offices.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s (RWJF) “Annual Report on HIT Adoption.” Was released at the briefing. The report was produced by researchers at RWJF, Mathematica Policy Research, and the Harvard School of Public Health.
The annual report clearly points out that the major federal investments in HIT over the last several years have made it possible for hospitals, physicians, and other providers to make significant strides in adopting HIT.
According to the report, 44 percent of hospitals in 2012 reported having a basic EHR system which was up by 17 percentage points from 2011. Physicians have also made substantial progress with 38.2 percent reporting the adoption of basic EHR in 2012.
The report points out that increasingly, healthcare providers are connecting their EHR initiatives with broader HIT partnerships in their communities. Twenty seven percent of hospitals are now participating in HIE initiatives, up from 14 percent in 2010.
Also, 10 percent of ambulatory practices were engaged in one of the nation’s 119 HIEs, up from 3 percent in 2010. In addition 32 percent of the HIEs reported supporting Accountable Care Organizations while 45 percent are supporting Patient-Centered Medical Homes.
Rural hospitals are closing the EHR adoption gap with their urban counterparts. The proportion of rural hospitals with at least a basic EHR increased from 9.8 percent to 33.5 percent from 2010 to 2012. During the same time frame, urban hospitals saw their EHR adoption rates rise from 17 percent to 47.7 percent.
The release of the RWJF Annual Report coincided with the release of three Health Affairs “Web First” papers. Several speakers and authors involved in developing the web papers, discussed the details and results concerning their projects at the briefing:
- Catherine M. DesRoches, Ph.D, Senior Scientist, Mathematica Policy Research
- Chun-Ju Hsiao, Ph.D, Senior Fellow National Center for Health Statistics, Division of Health Care Statistics, CDC
- Julia Adler-Milstein, Ph.D, Assistant Professor, University of Michigan, Health Management and Policy
The web papers noted that fewer than half of U.S hospitals had a basic EHR system in 2012, 72 percent of physicians have adopted some type of EHR system, the highest increase in adoption has been among physicians with historically low adoption levels, and operational HIEs show substantial growth, but long term funding remains a concern.
For more information, go to www.healthaffairs.org.