A new survey of electronic health record (EHR) adoption suggests federal policy programs are working to improve adoption rates, officials said as part of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s (ONC) 2016 Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.
According to an American Hospital Association Information Technology Supplement survey, 96 percent of hospitals in the United States have adopted certified EHRs by 2015, up from 72 percent in 2011. The high adoption rate is also a nine-fold increase since 2008, the last year before the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act was implemented.
“As we kick off the 2016 ONC Annual Meeting, these data showing nearly universal adoption of certified electronic health records by U.S. hospitals are an indication of how far we have come for clinicians and individuals since the HITECH Act was passed,” said Karen DeSalvo, MD, national coordinator for health information technology.
The ONC meeting will examine national priorities like delivery system reform, the Precision Medicine Initiative, the Cancer Moonshot and the opioid crisis. It will also include a “fireside chat” between DeSalvo and former Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who oversaw the implementation of the HITECH Act. More than 1,200 people are expected to attend the 2016 ONC Annual Meeting, with several hundred joining online via streaming webcast.
The AHA data shows there have been increases in sharing health data among hospitals, with over 85 percent of hospitals sending key clinical information electronically.
The AHA data also show that:
- The percentage of hospitals sending, receiving and finding key clinical information grew between 2014 and 2015.
- In 2015, about half of hospitals had health information electronically available from providers outside their systems; this grew by 5 percent from 2014.
- About half of hospitals report they often or sometimes use patient information they receive electronically from providers outside their systems.
The two data briefs, Adoption of Electronic Health Record Systems among U.S. Non-Federal Acute Care Hospitals: 2008 – 2015 and Interoperability among U.S. Non-Federal Acute Care Hospitals in 2015 can be viewed at HealthIT.gov.
