More than half of U.S. hospitals were finding it difficult to meet stage two meaningful use requirements by the end of the fiscal year that ended in July, according to a recent study conducted by the University of Michigan.
The researchers used data from the 2013 American Hospital Association Annual Survey of Hospitals Information Technology Supplement and sent a survey to 4,586 short-term acute care general hospitals of which 2,674 responded.
They found that only 5.8 percent of the hospitals were on track to meet all of the requirements. The hospitals that bill the Medicare program and didn't meet all of the requirements in fiscal year 2014 will face financial penalties in fiscal year 2015.
However, they found that 90 percent of the hospitals were able to meet many of the requirements, including using the EHR to enter orders for medication and lab and radiology tests, recording patients' vital signs and patient demographics, tracking medications using electronic medication administration records, creating patient lists by specific conditions and providing patient-specific education resources.
The more complicated requirements include submitting electronic data to vaccine registries, sharing the EHR data with patients online and with other providers who care for the same patients.
Julia Adler-Milstein, co-leader of the study and assistant professor at the university's school of information and school of public health, told DOTmed News in an email that the reason the hospitals struggled with those requirements is because of a lack of EHR functionality and hospital prioritization.
But if the hospitals are not able to meet all of the requirements, it's not entirely their fault, according to the study. Adler-Milstein believes that the EHR vendors need to upgrade their products to help the hospitals meet the criteria.
The rural and small hospitals had an especially hard time meeting the requirements, according to the study. Adler-Milstein thinks that means that policymakers have to come up with new targeted strategies to help those facilities choose, purchase, implement, and successfully use the EHRs.
