|
 The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH)
Act of 2009 set aside incentive payments through the government
health programs Medicare and Medicaid for eligible hospitals and
providers that adopted electronic health records (EHRs).
Four years later, roughly 59 percent of hospitals eligible for
subsidies had adopted at least basic EHR systems, the study found.
But among facilities ineligible for this financial help, only about
20 percent of rehabilitation hospitals and even fewer psychiatric or
long-term care facilities had adopted EHRs by 2013.
“In the U.S., healthcare is currently delivered in silos,” said lead
study author Daniel Walker of The Ohio State University College of
Medicine in Columbus.
“As patients move across the healthcare system, their record does
not move with them – leading to poor care coordination, cost
escalation, and quality and safety issues,” Walker added by email.
To assess EHR adoption rates based on whether hospitals qualified
for incentive payments, Walker and colleagues analyzed survey data
collected by the American Hospital Association from 2009 to 2013.
They categorized hospitals as having at least a basic EHR if the
system met a minimum threshold of capabilities and was deployed in
at least one hospital unit.
Then, the researchers also assessed something known as meaningful
use, or whether the EHR systems actually made it possible for
hospitals to save patient data and share it with other providers.
By 2013, about 44 percent of hospitals eligible for subsidies met
meaningful use criteria, up from less than 5 percent in 2009.
Less than 15 percent of long-term care or rehabilitation hospitals
and less than 10 percent of psychiatric hospitals met meaningful use
criteria by 2013, however.
One shortcoming of the study is that a high proportion of U.S.
hospitals didn’t complete survey questions on technology, limiting
the data on EHR adoption, the researchers note in Health Affairs.
[to top of second column] |
Even so, the findings suggest a need to improve record systems at
many hospitals that may deal with chronically ill patients who are
in particular need of better-coordinated care, noted Ann Kutney-Lee,
a health policy researcher at the University of Pennsylvania School
of Nursing in Philadelphia, by email.
“Patients who are treated in long-term care, rehabilitation and
psychiatric facilities without the benefit of ah EHR may be at risk
of poorer coordination of services and potentially lower quality of
care,” said Kutney-Lee, who wasn’t involved in the new study.
Beyond care coordination, widespread adoption of EHRs would create a
treasure trove of data researchers could mine to identify better
ways to treat diseases, avoid mistakes or identify the most
cost-effective treatments, said Dean Sittig, a health quality
researcher at the University of Texas Health Science Center at
Houston who also wasn’t involved in the study.
“EHRs shine a bright light on the actions and activities of all
involved in the healthcare delivery process,” Sittig added by email.
“In addition, it would be much easier for families or patients
within these facilities to understand what was, or was not, being
done for their loved ones.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/24q56a0 Health Affairs, March 2016.
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
